4-month rental waiver for IT firms operating from software tech parks

New Delhi, April 16 (IANS) In a major relief for several IT companies, the Centre on Thursday announced to waive rents to the small IT units operating out of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

Most of these units are either MSMEs in tech space or startups, an official statement said. It said that the move will benefit nearly 200 MSMEs in the IT and IT-enabled services operating from these 60 STPI centers.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has decided to provide rental waiver to these units housed in STPI premises in the country from March 1, 2020 to June 30.

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is an autonomous society under MeitY, Government of India, and it has 60 centres across the country.

"The initiative to provide rental waiver to the units located in these centers will provide relief to the industry in this crisis situation following COVID-19 pandemic," the statement said.

The total cost of the rental waiver provided to these units during the four- month period is estimated to be around Rs 5 crore. This effort is also in the larger interest of around 3,000 IT and ITeS employees who are directly supported by these units, it said.