Bid to woo investors: Maharashtra announces perks to set up FinTech services

Maharashtra, India’s most industrialised state, on Friday announced buildable area incentives for investors interested in setting up IT-enabled financial services in urban areas in the state. The Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis-led Urban Development department has issued orders notifying the incentives, while inviting suggestions and objections from the public. But, while the Fadnavis government has already drawn up plans for the setting up of a FinTech Services Centre in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex, sources said that regulations and concessions for the project in Mumbai would be notified separately.

The perks announced on Friday are applicable for municipal corporations and MIDC areas in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad. According to the notification issued on Friday, investors interested in setting up such IT parks can avail an incentive floor space index (FSI) of up to four times the plot size. The buildings housing the Smart FinTech Centres can get an additional FSI of up to 200 per cent, over and above the permissible limit. FSI is a development tool that defines the extent of construction permissible on a plot. It is the ratio of built-up area to the total plot area.

However, the government has imposed a rider that the an FSI of 4 will be applicable only for plots measuring over 2 lakh sq m and abutting roads that are over 24-metre-wide. In other cases, an FSI of 3 will be available for such projects. To avail the FSI benefit, such project must have an access road that is at least 18 m wide, and such projects must have been cleared by a government committee headed by the Principal Secretary (Information Technology). Also, the additional FSI will be given at a charge of a premium equal to 30 per cent of the ready reckoner rates for the plot in question. Out of this premium charged, 50 per cent of the share will be deposited in the Fin Tech Corpus fund, which is being set up by the Director of Information Technology, and the remaining 50 per cent will be shared between the planning authority and the government.

Further, the rules state that at least 85 per cent of the total proposed built-up area, will have permission for use for business of Fin Tech, like start-ups, incubators and accelerators, banking and financial services and IT, while the remaining 15 per cent can be for commercial purposes. It has also been stated that any misuse will lead to a per day penalty equal to 0.3 per cent of the prevailing ready reckoner value of the built-up area found to be in use in non-Fin Tech activities.

The government also announced that in accordance with the provisions of the new FinTech policy, it is necessary to urgently carry out, a suitable modification to the Development Control Regulations for Navi Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivali, Vasai-Virar, Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nagpur, Nasik, Aurangabad Municipal Corporations and Pimpri-Chinchwad New Town Development Authority and CIDCO (New Town Development Authority for Navi Mumbai Notified Area). It has invited suggestions and objections to the proposed modification to the regulations within a period of one month to the concerned joint director of town planning of these areas.

In February, the Maharashtra Fin Tech policy was approved by the Cabinet making the state the first in the country to adopt a comprehensive FinTech policy to foster an environment for FinTech startups.