Give us SEZ status or refund our money: Infosys gives ultimatum to Mamata

Infosys has reiterated its demand for a special economic zone status for its proposed Rs 75 crore project at Rajarhat New Town IT park in Bengal despite a strong stance taken by the Mamata Banerjee government against it. The timing and tenor of the latest Infosys letter sounds like an ultimatum to the state government. The IT major has asked the West Bengal government to either give SEZ status to the company’s proposed software development centre at Rajarhat or repay the money it has given in advance for the land. Infosys had paid Rs 75 crore to HIDCO for the land at Rajarhat. We have told the state government that it should either give us the SEZ status or pay back the money which was advanced to get the land," said a senior Infosys official . The previous Left Front government had promised the company that it would give SEZ status to Infosys for starting the project which had the prospect of creating 15,000 jobs, he said, adding: “But the present government is not at all willing to do that”. [caption id=“attachment_2039697” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Infosys was allotted 50 acres of prime land in Rajarhat at a throwaway price by the erstwhile Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government in 2010. But in 2011 the Mamata government came to power and refused to give the SEZ tag. “If I formulate a law and a policy that I shall not allow SEZ, then how can I relax it for an individual firm? I was against SEZ and I shall be against it in future. We have prepared a land policy and our stand about Infosys is in line with it,” Mamata had said at the time. Though she has been willing to  offer “alternative” benefits to Infosys to make up for the losses that may arise from the company not working from a tax haven, Infosys has stuck to its SEZ demand for the last five years. This was supposed to be the first Infosys centre in the state. “Even if governments change, the continuity in policies should not. We have immense faith in West Bengal”, the Infosys official said, adding “What the state government would have to do is just forward our proposal to the Centre with a recommendation and nothing else. We have presence in 11 states across the country and all of them have done that.” Ironically, the West Bengal Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim has denied receiving any intimation from Infosys regarding repayment of the money the company had advanced in connection with the proposed software development centre at Rajarhat. “There is no such development which had taken place, and the Infosys management had not intimated the state,” said Hakim. Hidco chairman Debasis Sen is also q uoted by The Times of India as saying that Infosys had not asked for a refund. With inputs from PTI