A ‘White Paper’ tabled by the Maharashtra government in the Legislative Council on Thursday claimed that it would not be right to state that big-ticket projects like Vedanta-Foxconn joint venture moved out of the state as no MoUs had been signed.
The Eknath Shinde government has been routinely accused by the opposition parties of not doing enough to stop several big-ticket projects from going to other states.
The opposition also claimed the Union government took some of these projects to neighbouring Gujarat ahead of Assembly polls there in late 2022.
On the Tata-Airbus aircraft manufacturing project, the White Paper, tabled in the Council by Industries Minister Uday Samant, said there was no communication between the state government and the Centre or the Tata group for the project.
It also said that the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) had not signed any memorandum of understanding for procurement of land for the Tata-Airbus project.
On the Vedanta-Foxconn semi-conductor project, the White Paper said a meeting of a high-powered committee took place on March 17, 2022, under the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government. However, it did not take up the project for discussion.
Instead, a high-powered committee meeting to give incentive to the company took place on July 15, 2022, under the (subsequent) Eknath Shinde-led government, the White Paper said.
“It would not be appropriate to say the company left Maharashtra as no MoU was signed between it and MIDC or the Maharashtra government, it said on the Vedanta-Foxconn project.
Last month, Taiwan’s Foxconn withdrew 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 from mobile phones to refrigerators and cars.
The White Paper also claimed that it would not be correct to say that French major Safran chose Hyderabad for its multi-million euro Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility over Maharashtra, as the company had not demanded land from the MIDC in the first place.
On the Bulk Drugs Park project, the White Paper said the state had offered 5 per cent interest subvention scheme for Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises, besides 100 per cent exemption of stamp duty and registration charges.
It had also offered incentives in the form of GST reimbursement against investment, 100 per cent gross GST reimbursement for MSME. The state also offered lowest land lease rates and special power rate of 5.77 kWh, the White Paper said.
Thirteen states were competing for the project and on September 1, 2022, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh were chosen by the Centre for giving Rs 1,000 crore for the drugs park project.
“The state government’s proposal did not get approval. However, the state government is establishing the project with its own resources and process to procure land for the same is on,” the White Paper said.
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