Bengal govt to extend fiscal incentives to IT, ITeS sector

Kolkata, Dec 15 (UNI) West Bengal government is planning to extend a host of fiscal incentives to lure more IT and ITES companies.

'' Government will give stamp duty waiver to select IT companies and help in building infrastructure, '' state IT Minister Debesh Das told UNI today.

" We will also introduce training subsidies for skill development of employees, " Mr Das said. The government would give incentives upto Rs 20,000 per employee. Under IT policy of 2003, government already gives capital and interest subsidy.

Mr Das said in the current year's state budget, the government had already earmarked Rs 15 crore as venture capital fund for start-up IT companies in the state.

'' The fund would also be provided to companies having products that can be patented. The state, getting investment in the BPO sector, is trying to woo hi-tech companies, '' he said.

The state government would acquire space in Kharagpur and Salt Lake to set up an advanced IT park.

He said the state having 42000 IT professionals would have 2,00,000 people working the sector in the next 3 years. Around 13 million square feet of IT space is being built and the IT developers and those are being filled up ahead of completion of construction.

He said the state was setting up 4 IT hubs at Kharagpur, Durgapur, Siliguri and Haldia to attract IT companies in the state.

" We have taken some space in the Taratola region for setting up the Finishing School for skill development, " Mr Das said.

" We gave talked to companies like IBM, TCS and Wipro for formulation of the curriculum for the Finishing School, " he said.

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