Infosys' plans halted; denied SEZ status by West Bengal govt

Kolkata, Feb 21: West Bengal IT Minister Partha Chatterjee on Monday, Feb 21 informed the IT giant Infosys that the state cannot recommend its project for the special economic zone (SEZ) status.

Few days back, the company claimed that they wouldn't start their work in Rajarhat, West Bengal without being given the SEZ status.

"We will give a reply to the Infosys within this week stating clearly that we (government) are in principle against SEZ in the state. But we will request the Centre to provide Infosys with some of the facilities of SEZ and the state will also try to partially match the concessions Infosys would have got in SEZ," Chatterjee said.

The state government can provide:- Value-added tax ( VAT) relief, sops in power tariff, soft loans.

"In case of Tata Motors, the previous government had offered various sops. We might look for some sops to retain Infosys," Chatterjee added.

Meanwhile, Chatterjee said that govt would approach the centre for tax sops like exemption of service tax, central excise exemption and corporate income tax exemption.

The company had purchased 50 acres of land for the project in Rajarhat and made the full payment in Oct last year.

OneIndia News