Govt announces four-month rental waiver for companies at STPI

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has decided to provide a four-month rental waiver to small IT units operating out of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI). Most of these units are either Tech MSMEs or startups.

The decision to provide a rental waiver from 1 March 2020 till 30 June 2020 was taken in view of the challenges thrown by COVID-19 outbreak and consequent lockdown that is threatening to impact businesses across the sector.

STPI is an autonomous society under MeitY and has 60 centers across the country. “The initiative to provide a rental waiver to the units located in these centers will provide relief to the industry in this crisis situation that has emerged due to COVID-19 pandemic,” a ministry release by PIB stated.

The release further said that the initiative will provide benefits to nearly 200 IT/ ITeS MSMEs, operating from these 60 STPI centers. The total cost of the rental waiver provided to these units during the four months period has been estimated to be around Rs 5 crore.

“This effort is also in the larger interest of around 3,000 IT/ ITeS employees who are directly supported by these units,” the MeitY release said.