Infosys to build five SEZs with $400-mn budget

The new locations will accommodate the IT giant’s massive expansion plans that will see it add 25,000 new employees this financial year. They will also help Infosys beat the 2010 deadline when the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme expires.

Software revenues in STPI zones are exempt from income tax until this deadline, but the government is now framing new SEZ rules that will continue a 100 per cent tax break for five years and a 50 per cent tax break for the five more years for the high-growth IT sector.

Infosys’ SEZs are being planned in the ‘Tier II’ Pune, Mysore, Mangalore,

Trivandrum and Chandigarh towns, for which the Ministry of Information Technology is currently seeking exemptions from the Ministry of Commerce.

In the five new towns, Infosys will apply for SEZ status for itself for the first time. Usually, Infy constructs and maintains its own offices but does not operate the SEZ on its own or apply for the special status.

At present, Infosys works out of SEZs hosted by third parties — Mahindra SEZ in Chennai, for instance — apart from its home base in Bangalore. Some of the upcoming SEZs may also be run by third-party providers too.

‘‘We have applied for SEZs in these towns and are seeking government approval for them,’’ S Gopalakrishnan, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of Infosys said today. He did not fix a time frame for when all the buildings will be housed.