Power Subsidy Scheme (Goa IT Policy)

What is the Goa Power Subsidy Scheme for IT units?

Power Subsidy Scheme is an incentive of the Department of Information Technology, Government of Goa, set out at clause 6.B.6 of the Information Technology Policy 2018. Its object is to provide a power subsidy to eligible Information Technology units in the state of Goa.

An IT office in Goa runs servers, air conditioning and lighting through long hours, and the policy expressly permits IT units to operate 24x7x365 in three shifts, which makes electricity a standing cost rather than an occasional one. The scheme has two limbs, one for grid power and one for units that generate their own solar power.

Key features

• 20% subsidy on power bills for all units operating in Goa, only on the power charges, excluding any duty and taxes, and not on the total bill.
• Subject to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh per annum per unit, whichever is lower.
• Provided for a period of 3 years from the date of commencement of operations, or from the date of notification of the policy, whichever is later.
• Solar limb: all units operating in Goa running on 100% solar energy are eligible for reimbursement of 10% of the capital cost of installing a Solar Power Generation Unit, subject to a maximum subsidy of Rs 50 lakh.
• The unit must be registered with the Goa Energy Development Agency (GEDA) for production of solar power to claim the solar limb.

Who is eligible and who is not eligible?

Your unit can claim if:

• It is a unit of the IT industry operating in Goa, IT products, IT software, IT services or ITeS as defined in the policy.
• It pays electricity bills in the name of the unit and can produce the bills and payment receipts.
• It is within 3 years of the date of commencement of operations, or of the policy notification date, whichever is later.
• For the solar limb, the unit runs on 100% solar energy and is registered with GEDA for production of solar power.

You cannot apply, or are not eligible, if:

• You are a household or a non-IT business. There is no citizen route into this scheme; the applicant is always an IT industry unit.
• Your claim includes duty and taxes on the electricity bill, or is computed on the total bill rather than on the power charges alone.
• Your unit is beyond the 3-year window measured from the later of the commencement of operations and the policy notification.
• Your unit is availing similar financial incentives under any other policy of the Government of Goa, which clause 7.A.2 bars.
• For the solar limb, your unit is not running on 100% solar energy, or is not registered with GEDA for solar production. A partial solar installation does not qualify for the 10% capital cost reimbursement.
• Your business falls outside the policy's definitions of IT Service, ITeS or IT Industry. ITeS is defined by an enumerated list of business process outsourcing services and expressly excludes research and development services.

How much do I actually get?

The wording of the grid limb matters. The subsidy is 20% of the power charges, or Rs 5 lakh per annum, whichever is lower, so a unit paying Rs 15,00,000 a year in power charges gets Rs 3,00,000, while a unit paying Rs 40,00,000 gets Rs 5,00,000, not Rs 8,00,000. And because duty and taxes are excluded, the base figure is smaller than the amount printed at the bottom of the bill.

A second filter then applies, under clause 6.B.1(a):

Employees must have been on the payroll for at least 12 months to be counted. A "Resident of Goa" or person of "Goan Origin" is someone born in Goa, resident in the state for 10 years or more, having at least one parent born in Goa, or the spouse of such a person. A "Goan Graduate" is a person of Goan origin who completed an IT-related degree or diploma anywhere, or anyone who completed an IT-related degree or diploma at an institute located in Goa.

What documents are required?

How to apply for the Goa IT power subsidy

1. Ensure the electricity connection is in the name of the unit and that bills and payment receipts are retained for the whole claim period. A connection in a landlord's or a director's name complicates the claim.
2. Separate the power charges from duty and taxes on each bill before you compute the claim. The subsidy is only on the power charges component, so the working should show that split explicitly.
3. Fix your Commercial Operation Date. The policy treats a business as having commenced operation when it started its first commercial activity and also produced its first bill of sale or service; the 3-year subsidy window runs from that date or from the policy notification, whichever is later.
4. Register the unit on the Goa single-window system at goaonline.gov.in, which the policy commits to for registration of IT units and communication with the Government on incentives.
5. File the annual claim with the electricity bills, payment receipts, proof of the commencement of operations, the employment statement identifying employees of Goan origin and Goan graduates with 12 months on the payroll, and a declaration that no similar incentive has been taken under another Goa policy.
6. File the solar claim separately if applicable, attaching the GEDA registration for production of solar power and the capital cost invoices for the Solar Power Generation Unit, on which 10% is reimbursed up to Rs 50 lakh.
7. Await the supported Committee's decision. The Committee, chaired by the Chief Minister with the Minister for Information Technology as Vice-Chairman and the Director of the Department of Information Technology as Member Secretary, is the authority deciding incentives, with a commitment of 90 working days for approvals and payments.

Why power subsidy claims get reduced or rejected

• The claim is computed on the total bill instead of on power charges alone.
• Duty and taxes included, which the clause expressly excludes.
• Claim exceeds Rs 5 lakh for the year, the annual cap per unit.
• The 3-year window has closed, measured from the later of the commencement of operations and the policy notification date.
• Electricity connection not in the unit's name, so the payment cannot be attributed.
• Solar claim without GEDA registration, or from a unit not running on 100% solar energy.
• A similar incentive already taken under another policy of the Government of Goa.
• Employees counted with fewer than 12 months on the payroll, which lowers the released share.

What about the internet bill?

The policy handles bandwidth separately at clause 6.B.7. All New and Existing Units can avail a 25% reimbursement on high speed bandwidth, subject to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh per annum, whichever is lower, and the subsidy can be availed for 3 years from the date of commencement of operations or from the policy notification date, whichever is later. The structure mirrors the power subsidy closely, so a unit filing one should usually file the other in the same cycle.

What are the related incentives under the same policy?

• Capital Investment Subsidy; up to 20% of capital investment, capped at Rs 10 lakh, Rs 50 lakh or Rs 1 crore by unit size.
• Land and Built-Up Area Rebate — Rs 40,000 per male employee and Rs 50,000 per female employee up to 60% of land cost, capped at Rs 1.5 crore, or 20% of built-up office space cost capped at Rs 1 crore.
• Lease Rental Subsidy; up to 50% of annual lease rentals, or 60% where 30% or more employees are women, for 2 years.
• Registration and Stamp Duty Subsidy; reimbursement so that registration and stamp duty charges do not exceed Rs 100.
• Salary Subsidy. A matching grant up to Rs 10,000 per fresher per month, Rs 12,500 for a female fresher, for 2 continuous years.
• Patent Filing Reimbursement: up to Rs 25 lakh per unit.
• Quality Certification Reimbursement: capped at Rs 5 lakh per unit.

Where to get help and one caution

• Department of Information Technology, Government of Goa, which issues the detailed implementation guidelines for the policy.
• Goa Energy Development Agency (GEDA), with which a unit must register for production of solar power before claiming the solar limb.
• Goa single-window portal, goaonline.gov.in, for registration and claims.

One caution on timing. Clause 7.A.1 states that the policy shall remain in operation for a period of five years from the date of notification in the official gazette, so confirm the current status with the Department of Information Technology before preparing a claim. Clause 7.A.6 also applies: false or misleading information means returning the incentive with interest at 18% per annum and being debarred from future Government incentives.

How to check your power subsidy claim status

The power subsidy is not a one-time application with a token number that gets tracked on a public dashboard. It is an annual claim filed with the Department of Information Technology and decided by the Empowered Committee, so status checking works differently from a citizen welfare scheme.

1. Log in to the Goa single-window portal. Since the unit registered on goaonline.gov.in to file the claim, check the same login for any update on the application, whether it shows as received, under scrutiny, or forwarded to the Committee.
2. Track the 90 working day commitment. The policy commits the Committee to a decision on incentives, including approvals and payments, within 90 working days. Count this from the date the complete claim, with bills, receipts and the employee statement, was submitted, not from the date of an incomplete filing.
3. Follow up directly with the Department of Information Technology, Government of Goa if the 90 working day period has passed without a response. As the Member Secretary of the Committee is the Director of the Department, written correspondence addressed to the Department is the practical route since no dedicated helpline number for this scheme is published.
4. Ask specifically which limb is pending when following up. Because the grid power subsidy and the solar reimbursement are filed and assessed separately, a delay on one does not necessarily mean the other is also stuck; naming the limb in any query helps the Department locate the right file faster.
5. Keep an acknowledgment or receipt number from the portal filing. Any query to the Department is faster to resolve when it references the date and reference of the original submission rather than only the unit's name.

If a claim is returned for correction rather than rejected outright, most gaps trace back to incomplete documentation, such as bills that do not separate power charges from duty and taxes, or a solar claim filed without the GEDA registration certificate attached. Resubmitting with the missing document is usually enough to restart the clock rather than requiring a fresh filing.