Maharashtra minister Uday Samant said 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 bordering Gujarat provided.
Speaking at a press conference held here, he added that the government has kept 2,000 acres available in case Foxconn or another semiconductor company wants to build a plant in Maharashtra. Vedanta-Foxconn decided to move their planned semiconductor plant from Maharashtra to Gujarat in September of last year, which sparked a political blame-game between the Shinde administration 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Two days back, Taiwan’s Foxconn announced that it has withdrawn from a USD 19.5 billion semiconductor joint venture with mining baron Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta Ltd as the venture struggled to get a technology partner to make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.