NASSCOM Feedback: Punjab’s Draft Industrial and Business Development Policy, 2022

Terms of use

Terms of Use

The use of this site and the content contained therein is governed by the Terms of Use. When you use this site you acknowledge that you have read the Terms of Use and that you accept and will be bound by the terms hereof and such terms as may be modified from time to time.

All text, graphics, audio, design and other works on the site are the copyrighted works of nasscom unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
Content on the site is for personal use only and may be downloaded provided the material is kept intact and there is no violation of the copyrights, trademarks, and other proprietary rights. Any alteration of the material or use of the material contained in the site for any other purpose is a violation of the copyright of nasscom and / or its affiliates or associates or of its third-party information providers. This material cannot be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted or distributed in any way for non-personal use without obtaining the prior permission from nasscom.
The nasscom Members login is for the reference of only registered nasscom Member Companies.
nasscom reserves the right to modify the terms of use of any service without any liability. nasscom reserves the right to take all measures necessary to prevent access to any service or termination of service if the terms of use are not complied with or are contravened or there is any violation of copyright, trademark or other proprietary right.
From time to time nasscom may supplement these terms of use with additional terms pertaining to specific content (additional terms). Such additional terms are hereby incorporated by reference into these Terms of Use.

Disclaimer

The Company information provided on the nasscom web site is as per data collected by companies. nasscom is not liable on the authenticity of such data.
nasscom has exercised due diligence in checking the correctness and authenticity of the information contained in the site, but nasscom or any of its affiliates or associates or employees shall not be in any way responsible for any loss or damage that may arise to any person from any inadvertent error in the information contained in this site. The information from or through this site is provided "as is" and all warranties express or implied of any kind, regarding any matter pertaining to any service or channel, including without limitation the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement are disclaimed. nasscom and its affiliates and associates shall not be liable, at any time, for any failure of performance, error, omission, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, computer virus, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorised access to, alteration of, or use of information contained on the site. No representations, warranties or guarantees whatsoever are made as to the accuracy, adequacy, reliability, completeness, suitability or applicability of the information to a particular situation.
nasscom or its affiliates or associates or its employees do not provide any judgments or warranty in respect of the authenticity or correctness of the content of other services or sites to which links are provided. A link to another service or site is not an endorsement of any products or services on such site or the site.
The content provided is for information purposes alone and does not substitute for specific advice whether investment, legal, taxation or otherwise. nasscom disclaims all liability for damages caused by use of content on the site.
All responsibility and liability for any damages caused by downloading of any data is disclaimed.
nasscom reserves the right to modify, suspend / cancel, or discontinue any or all sections, or service at any time without notice.

For any grievances under the Information Technology Act 2000, please get in touch with Grievance Officer, Mr. Anirban Mandal at data-query@nasscom.in.

New

See all

No notification found.

NASSCOM Feedback: Punjab’s Draft Industrial and Business Development Policy, 2022

Apurva Singh

@apurvaa

October 21, 2022

Public Policy

230

We submitted our feedback on state of Punjab’s Draft Industrial and Business Development Policy (Policy). In our submission, we noted the following:

In order for the State to grow the presence of IT industry in a significant manner, there is a need for a policy approach which recognises the asset light and talent centric nature of the IT industry. The incentives and infrastructural enablement need to be designed keeping this in perspective. The IT/ITeS industry has the potential to create several high-quality jobs to meet the aspirations of youth in Punjab. The IT and the electronics industry in Punjab had witnessed a significant growth in the financial year 2021-22, attracting investments worth Rs 770 crore.[1]

Carving out an IT industry specific chapter or IT industry specific policy: While we appreciate the intent of Punjab government to have an industrial policy and boost the industrial ecosystem in Punjab, we note that the IT industry is significantly different from the manufacturing industry in terms of manpower, power usage, electricity consumed etc., and therefore, we suggest that a separate chapter for IT industry be carved out in the draft Policy. Alternatively, the state of Punjab can consider releasing a separate IT industry policy for the IT/ITeS companies.

Incentives to existing units for expansion, diversification and modernisation: We note that Clause 12.2 of the draft Policy specifies that all existing “manufacturing” units undertaking expansion, diversification or modernisation shall be eligible for incentives at par with new units. However, for the “service industry” units, Clause 12.2. states that only new units shall be entitled to the incentives. We note that no rationale has been provided as to why existing service industry units shall not be eligible for incentives similar to existing manufacturing units.
We suggest that in the absence of any intelligible differentia for extending benefits to existing services units, the eligibility for incentives should be allowed for the service industry including the IT/ITeS companies as well.
Investment subsidy by way of reimbursement of net SGST on intra-state sales: The draft Policy extends the incentive to reimbursement of 100% of net SGST for 7 years from the date of commercial production with a cap of 100% of FCI. No rationale has been provided as to why this has been limited to intra-state sales. We note that in the last policy, reimbursement of net SGST was provided on total sales.[2]
We recommend that in line with the previous policies, this be extended to “total sales” i.e., both inter and intra state sales.
Anchor unit eligibility criteria: We note that in Clause 12.11.2 of the draft Policy, it has been stated that every month companies shall have to employ minimum 500 employees to be eligible for the categorisation as “anchor units”. This shall translate into employing minimum 6000 direct employees on an annual basis. However, we note that there may be situations where it may not be possible to directly employ 500 employees due to resignation, suspension, lack of talent availability etc. Therefore, it may be feasible to instead allow minimum direct employees to be 6000 every year instead of minimum direct employees to be 500 every month.

For more information, kindly write to apurva@nasscom.in and tejasvi@nasscom.in.

[1] See, Tribune, Boost to Punjab’s IT Sector, private firms commit Rs 770 cr investment in FY22, available at https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/boost-to-punjabs-it-sector-private-firms-commit-rs-770-cr-investment-in-fy22-404746.

[2] See, Amendments IBDP Net SGST dated 17.10.2018, available at http://investpunjab.gov.in/assets/docs/Amendments_IBDP_Net_SGST_17_10_2018.pdf.

Disclaimer

That the contents of third-party articles/blogs published here on the website, and the interpretation of all information in the article/blogs such as data, maps, numbers, opinions etc. displayed in the article/blogs and views or the opinions expressed within the content are solely of the author's; and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of NASSCOM or its affiliates in any manner. NASSCOM does not take any liability w.r.t. content in any manner and will not be liable in any manner whatsoever for any kind of liability arising out of any act, error or omission. The contents of third-party article/blogs published, are provided solely as convenience; and the presence of these articles/blogs should not, under any circumstances, be considered as an endorsement of the contents by NASSCOM in any manner; and if you chose to access these articles/blogs , you do so at your own risk.

Apurva Singh

Senior Policy Associate

Write to me for all things related to FinTech, Drones, Data and Gaming