Gandhinagar, 3 April 2013

Gujarat government’s spokesperson ministers Nitin Patel and Saurabh Patel today said that mispropoganda is going on about the content of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report which was tabled yesterday in Gujarat assembly.

On CAG’s objections on GIFT project, the ministers said, “this is a public private partnership project. It’s a joint venture of GUDC and ILFS where developer has been given only land development rights and ownership rights are with the government only. Moreover government and developer both will get 50-50 percent revenue as per the agreement of this project. Later on the state government and GIFT will share revenue at 80:20 ration. The state government has kept the ownership of land with itself against the land money. CAG’s imaginative logic says that when units in this project will get rights on sub-lease basis, the old conditions will be breached, and state government’s rights will not be safe. The state government has made it clear that this is joint venture project of the state government and GUDC, and in the cases of sublease, prior approval of collector is needed. The state government – as per its policy – will levy premium in that case as per the government policy, and thus will earn revenue.”

“GIFT project has been recognised as an innovative project. As per an estimate the state government will earn annual revenue of Rs 4,000 crore once the project is fully functional. Five lakh direct and five lakh indirect employment generation will be an added benefit.”

“The land which is padtar at present will contribute to development of entire area. It will avail leveraging and unlocking the land value.”

“It is completely false that the land has been given to any private institute on token rate. 50-50% revenue will be shared between the state government and GIFT company when 1 crore square ft area is developed. In second phase 5.2 crore sq ft area will be developed and revenue share between government and GIFT company will be 80-20%. Thus the state government will earn crore of rupees of income without single pie of investment.”