Vedanta Limited and Taiwanese semiconductor giant Foxconn will invest $19.5 billion ( ₹1.54 lakh crore) to set up a semiconductor and display production plants in Gujarat. However, a massive political controversy has erupted over the big announcement with opposition parties in Maharashtra crying foul over the deal. It all started after Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray sought a probe into how the Vedanta-Foxconn deal went to Gujarat and claimed that Maharashtra was the priority of the investors. The Shiv Sena, which along with Congress and Nationalist Congress Party was ousted from power, tore into chief minister Eknath Shinde over the deal.
Sena in its mouthpiece Saamna claimed the Vedanta-Foxconn deal went from Maharashtra to Gujarat as the BJP asked a favour from Shinde for making him the chief minister. Amid the political tussle, Vedanta chairman Anil Agarwal said the company chose Gujarat based on professional and independent advice.
“We decided on Gujarat few months ago as it met our expectations. But in the July meeting with Maharashtra leadership, they made a huge effort to outbid other states with a competitive offer. We have to start in one place and based on professional and independent advice, we chose Gujarat,” Agarwal said in a tweet.
As the opposition continues to target the Eknath Shinde government of letting the Vedanta-Foxconn deal slip from Maharashtra to Gujarat, here are the five points which show how the offers by both the states to the corporate giants differed.
1. Gujarat offered a ₹28,000 crore capital subsidy to Vedanta-Foxconn for the semiconductor plant. On the other hand, the offer by Maharashtra government stood at ₹40,000 crore.
2. Gujarat offered 200 acres of land to both the companies at Dholera in Ahmedabad at 75 per cent of the going rate. Maharashtra offered 1,100 acres of land at Talegaon Phase IV in Pune district. Out of this, 400 acres were offered free of cost while the remaining 700 acres were offered at 75 per cent of the current rate.
3. The Bhupendra Patel government in Gujarat offered electricity at ₹2 per unit for a period of ten years. The Maharashtra government offered 1,200 MW of electricity at ₹3 per unit for 20 years. It also offered a waiver of 7.5 per cent of electricity duty for ten years.
4. The Gujarat government offered a subsidised stamp duty waiver of 5 per cent for the Vedanta-Foxconn deal, which is same as that of the Maharashtra government.
5. Maharashtra also offered a ₹337 crore water subsidy offer and a ₹812 crore subsidy for waste management.
