Maha govt had offered Rs 39,000 crore incentives to Foxconn, Rs 10,000 crore more than Gujarat, says Uday Samant

Pic/Uday Samant’s team

Maharashtra minister Uday Samant on Wednesday said the Eknath Shinde-led government had offered Rs 39,000 crore incentives to Vedanta-Foxconn for its semiconductor manufacturing project, which was Rs 10,000 crore more than what was offered by neighbouring Gujarat, reported news agency PTI.

Addressing a press conference, Uday Samant also said that if Foxconn or any other semiconductor manufacturer wants to set up a plant in Maharashtra, the government has kept 2,000 acres ready for the purpose.

In September last year, Vedanta-Foxconn decided to shift its proposed semiconductor plant to Gujarat from Maharashtra, which kicked up a political blame game between the Shinde government and the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).

Two days back, Taiwan's Foxconn announced that it has withdrawn from a USD 19.5 billion semiconductor joint venture with mining baron Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Ltd as the venture struggled to get a technology partner to make chips that are used in mobile phones to refrigerators and cars.

Agarwal's metals-to-oil conglomerate responded saying it was "fully committed" to its semiconductor fab project and we have lined up other partners to set up India's first foundry.

To a query on Foxconn's move, Samant said, "You will be surprised to know that the Gujarat government had offered Rs 29,000 crore incentives to Foxconn-Vedanta (to set up the project). Today I am saying this on record that we had offered Rs 39,000 crore incentives (to the company), a difference of Rs 10,000 crore as compared to what was offered by Gujarat."

CM Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had taken this initiative, he said.

Without naming the erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government, Samant said, "The earlier dispensation allotted the land to the company in an eco-sensitive zone and the company was asked to set up its project there...Can a project come up in an eco-sensitive zone?"

"But after coming to power, we removed the eco-sensitive zone and we have set aside 2000 acres of land. Suppose tomorrow they change their mind or some other semiconductor project comes up, then we have ready land available with us," the minister said.

On Monday, Samant announced that the Maharashtra government would table a white paper on circumstances in which the Vedanta-Foxconn project went outside the state in the monsoon session of the legislature.

(With inputs from PTI)