Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Thursday inaugurated a Rs 110-crore facility for carmaker BMW on a 22-acre site at Mahindra Industrial Park in Maraimalar Nagar, about 40 km from here. The project has taken off barely a month after the Tamil Nadu government signed a MoU with three car giants, India's Mahindra and Mahindra Limited, French car giant Renault and Japan's Nissan Motor Company for a Rs 4,000 crore 'tripartite integrated manufacturing facility' for making a range of vehicles at Oragadam, about 50 km from Chennai.These initiatives are part of the government's new "exclusive policy" called the Ultra Mega Integrated Automobile Projects that liberally doles out tax concessions to lure major integrated automobile companies to Tamil Nadu.While Singur and Nandigram might have dampened the Centre's enthusiasm for SEZs, Tamil Nadu has been zipping ahead in clearing industrial projects that require huge amounts of land acquisitions. The February 26 inking of agreement for the three-car project requires 1,100 acres of land. While the government-run SIPCOT will set aside 200 acres for the project, the remaining would be through land acquisitions.But the Ultra Mega Integrated Automobile Projects policy does not see land acquisition as a problem. "The land allotment would be done at a concessional price and the concession would be decided on a case-to-case basis," the government order (GO) on the new policy states. The policy throws in a 100 per cent stamp duty waiver as well.Earlier, the 'Super Mega Projects' sanctioned a package of incentives to investments exceeding Rs 1,500 crore made in fixed assets within a time frame of five years from the date of signing of the MoU. In the recent past, major automobile companies selected sites in other states as the incentive package offered by Tamil Nadu was less attractive. So, the government repackaged its old policy to offer concessions for automobile projects involving an investment of not less than Rs 4,000 crore in the same location to be made in seven years from the date of signing of MoU with the government or any other date specified by it.Besides land concessions, the policy will provide for power supply through dual feeder lines by Tamil Nadu Electricity Board with the cost of the feeder lines being borne by the government/TNEB and exemption from electricity tax for 10 years for both TNEB and captive power.The slew of concessions also include tax incentives for eligible investors like refund of gross output Value Added Tax and Central Sales Tax without any set off for 21 years or up to 115 per cent of eligible investment, whichever is earlier. The policy would "endeavour" to provide incentives to enable the company achieve at least 100 per cent availment of incentives with reference to the limit of eligible investments made in the project. The benefit in respect of capital goods and works contract tax would be limited to the investment period and the exemptions/refund would not be considered while calculating the ceiling of output VAT and CST refund. Any other concession provided already under the Super Mega Project or New Industrial Policy 2003 would continue.For all dateline stories visit expressindia.com/date
