Hyderabad: The Chandrababu Naidu government has extended several benefits to mobile manufacturing companies Celkon, Karbonn, Micromax and Lava that have announced setting up of units in Sri Venkateswara Mobile and Electronics Manufacturing cluster (Hub) in Tirupati. These include subsidies, tax exemptions and other incentives.
Right from giving land at a subsidised rate of Rs 20 lakh per acre to offering them 15 per cent investment subsidy and VAT exemption, the government is also providing mega industry status to these companies.
With a combined investment of Rs 1,070 crore, the hub is anticipated to generate direct employment for 20,000 people and indirect employment to another 40,000.
Officials told this correspondent that special incentives would be given to investors who arrive early, bringing high value projects to the state, in addition to what is promised in the industrial and electronics po-licies of the state government.
“This is only the beginning. The AP Electronic Policy 2014-20 envisages promotion of development of 20 electronic manufacturing clusters (EMCs) by 2020, especially in Visakhapatnam, East Godavari and Chittoor districts. The Industrial Development Policy 2015-20 seeks to attract investments of Rs 2 lakh crore and create employment opportunities for an additional 10 lakh people by 2020,” officials said.
India has been an importer of handsets, with import volumes of 225 million handsets in 2014, up 20 per cent from 187.5 million handsets imported in 2013. It is projected that by 2020, the import bill for electronics will surpass that of petroleum; and mobile handsets will be a significant component of this bill.
