In a strongly worded disagreement with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday asserted that the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) will be set up in Mumbai soon.
Fadnavis told the Legislative Council that the state government has been exploring two options regarding the setting up of the IFSC in Mumbai, a natural financial centre of the country.
He claimed that the banking, financial and insurance companies will prefer to have their front desk operations in the proposed IFSC whereas they will have their back desk operations in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) city near Ahmedabad, where the first IFSC will come up.
We have asked for the relaxation in the mandatory criterion of 50 hectares continuous land for IFSC to the Union government as the present site in Bandra-Kurla Complex is short of the required area, said Fadnavis.
If our request is not granted we will set up a sub-centre in one of the already existing Special Economic Zones (SEZ) at Navi Mumbai or Nagpur and will have distributed leisure system to make the IFSC functional without the SEZ tag, he added.
While admitting that the proposed IFSC falls in the funnel zone of the Mumbai airport, Fadnavis assured that the height of the IFSC will not be more than 90 metre.
A Congress member Sanjay Dutt raised doubt that the IFSC will not have tax concessions if it does not get a status of SEZ. Fadnavis pointed to three IFSCs in London city to argue that the IFSC could be functional with distributed leisure system without SEZ tag.
In an apparent counter to Jaitley, the CM sought to apologies the Union minister for saying that the country cannot have two IFSCs unless the first one at GIFT city reaches to its full usage.
I seek apology to everyone who is concerned with the project (IFSC). The financial services hub cant be set up without Mumbai, he said.
Fadnavis informed the House that the state government has asked railways for Rs 3,000 crore in lieu of giving them a land measuring 0.9 hectares in Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) for constructing an underground terminal of the bullet train. They will construct the basement of the IFSC for us at a time they will construct basement for the bullet train, he said.
He also strongly advocated the need for a bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad claiming that the project will boost the states gross domestic product (GDP). All the countries that have bullet trains have seen a massive upsurge in their respective GDPs after the train started running. Mobility leads to development and development leads to growth in the GDP, Fadnavis said. (With India today)
