Aatmanirbhar Gujarat Scheme for Assistance to Large Industries and Thrust Sector: Assistance of Interest Subsidy

What is the Aatmanirbhar Gujarat Scheme for Large Industries and Thrust Sector?

The Aatmanirbhar Gujarat Scheme for assistance to Large Industries and Thrust Sector is an industrial incentive package of the Industries and Mines Department, Government of Gujarat, notified by Government Resolution No. MIS-102022-1271(2)-I dated 5 October 2022. The scheme's operative period runs from 5 October 2022 to 4 October 2027, that is five years from the date the GR was issued.

The scheme was introduced as an amendment layer over the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020, alongside two sister schemes issued the same day, the Aatmanirbhar Gujarat Scheme for assistance to MSMEs and the Aatmanirbhar Gujarat Scheme for assistance to Mega Industries. Together they are published by the Industries Commissionerate as the "Aatmanirbhar Gujarat Schemes 2022".

The large industry scheme carries several components: interest subsidy, net SGST reimbursement, EPF reimbursement and related benefits. This guide covers Scheme 1 of the GR, the Assistance of Interest Subsidy.

This is an institutional incentive. There is no citizen application, no personal grant and no household benefit under it. The applicant is always a manufacturing company or firm.

Who is eligible for the interest subsidy and who is not eligible?

Eligible

• An industrial undertaking. A company, partnership firm including LLP, society, trust, industrial cooperative society or proprietary concern; engaged in the manufacture, production, processing or job work of articles.
• A large industrial undertaking, defined as one whose fixed capital investment in plant and machinery is higher than Rs 50 crore, and which has filed an Industrial Entrepreneurs Memorandum or obtained the licence or permission prescribed by the Government of India.
• The undertaking must hold acknowledgement or registration from DPIIT.
• A new large industrial unit, or an existing industrial undertaking carrying out expansion and/or diversification, that commences commercial production during the operative period.
• A new industrial unit must have a separate Letter of Intent, Letter of Approval or filed IEM, and separately identifiable fixed capital investment. Sharing an existing project's utilities: water, electricity, steam, gas, pollution control: does not cost the unit its eligibility.

Not eligible / cannot apply

• Individuals seeking a personal loan subsidy. The scheme has no individual beneficiary route.
• Micro, small and medium undertakings, defined in the GR as investment in plant and machinery of up to Rs 1 crore (micro), above Rs 1 crore up to Rs 10 crore (small) and above Rs 10 crore up to Rs 50 crore (medium). These must use the MSME scheme instead.
• Units inside the municipal corporation limits of Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar, Gandhinagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara.
• An undertaking that has already availed an incentive for the same gross fixed capital investment under any other state government scheme or state agency scheme, unless specifically provided otherwise.
• Loans from Non-Banking Financial Companies. Term loan means a loan sanctioned by a financial institution or bank, expressly excluding NBFCs.

How much interest subsidy does the scheme pay?

Interest subsidy is fixed at 7% on the term loan, but the number of years and the annual ceiling vary by taluka category and by whether the project falls in a thrust sector.

Category-wise classification of talukas follows GR No. MIS-102020-347965-I dated 2 November 2020. Where a project straddles more than one taluka, the taluka holding the largest share of the project's land area decides the category.

Two ceilings shape the final number. First, in every case the undertaking must bear a minimum of 2% of the interest levied by the financial institution. Second, incentives under the scheme are capped at eligible fixed capital investment of Rs 2,500 crore, no matter how much larger the actual gross fixed capital investment is. That cap covers both new and expansion investment by the same undertaking taken together.

If the undertaking is also drawing interest subsidy from the Government of India, the state subsidy is limited so that the undertaking still bears at least 2% of the interest even after the central subsidy is offset.

Which sectors count as thrust sectors?

The GR defines thrust sectors as those with the most potential which need extra support to be globally competitive. The nine listed sectors and their sub-sectors are:

1. Green energy ecosystem: green hydrogen and green ammonia, electrolysers, renewable energy equipment, battery storage, fuel cells.
2. Mobility: aviation-related manufacturing, electric vehicles, auto and auto components, space-related manufacturing.
3. Capital equipment, electrical machinery and equipment, industrial machinery and equipment, telecom-related machinery and equipment.
4. Metals and minerals: metals, mineral processing, ceramics.
5. Textile and apparel, technical textiles, textile, apparel and garments.
6. Sustainability: municipal solid and liquid waste recycling equipment manufacturing.
7. Agro processing — agro and food processing.
8. Gems and jewellery, including lab grown diamonds.
9. Healthcare, pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients, medical devices.

What is eligible fixed capital investment under the scheme?

Eligible Fixed Capital Investment is the investment in fixed assets made from the date the GR was issued up to the last date of the eligible investment period. The eligible investment period runs from the GR date and continues past the Date of Commencement of Commercial Production:

• 18 months from DoCP where gross capital investment is up to Rs 1,000 crore.
• 24 months from DoCP where gross capital investment exceeds Rs 1,000 crore.

While deciding final eligibility, the authority takes the lower of the gross fixed capital investment actually made in the project or the cost appraised by the bank or financial institution. Buildings taken on lease or rent, other than GIDC sheds, are not eligible fixed capital investment.

The GR also treats expansion and diversification carefully. An existing unit increasing capacity or adding a product line during the operative period is treated as an existing industrial unit in reference to the original project, and the expansion is eligible on its own terms. For expansion and diversification projects, the DoCP is the date of the first sale bill of the product being manufactured by that project.

What conditions attach to the interest subsidy?

1. Interest subsidy is available only on the amount of loan actually disbursed against the sanctioned term loan, and only for eligible fixed capital investment.
2. The undertaking may apply for a claim only after obtaining the Provisional Eligibility Certificate or Final Eligibility Certificate.
3. The undertaking must opt for the date of eligibility, either the date of first disbursement of loan, or the date of commencement of commercial production. Either way, subsidy is disbursed only after commercial production starts.
4. Where term loans are taken from multiple financial institutions, the date of first disbursement is the earliest such date across all loans.
5. Subsidy is reimbursed only on interest levied. Penal interest and other charges do not count.
6. Default stops the subsidy. An undertaking that becomes a defaulter under RBI norms loses subsidy for the default period, and that period is deducted from the eligible subsidy period.

How to apply for the Aatmanirbhar Gujarat interest subsidy

The route runs through the Industries Commissionerate, not through any public citizen portal. The steps are:

1. Confirm eligibility before investing. Check that planned investment in plant and machinery will exceed Rs 50 crore, that the project site is outside the eight excluded municipal corporation limits, and note the taluka category under GR No. MIS-102020-347965-I dated 2 November 2020, because that decides both the subsidy period and the annual ceiling.
2. File the IEM and obtain DPIIT acknowledgement or registration for the large industrial undertaking before commercial production begins.
3. Sanction the term loan from a bank or financial institution, not an NBFC, for the gross fixed capital investment, and keep the sanction letter and disbursement schedule.
4. Apply to the Industries Commissionerate for the eligibility certificate, submitting proof of constitution, PAN, IEM, DPIIT record, project details, CA-certified investment statement, loan sanction papers and evidence of the date of commencement of commercial production.
5. Obtain the Provisional or Final Eligibility Certificate and record the opted date of eligibility for interest subsidy.
6. File the periodic interest subsidy claim with the bank certificate of interest levied and instalments paid, the CA certificate of eligible fixed capital investment and the prescribed claim forms.
7. Cooperate with verification. The Commissionerate scrutinises the claim and arranges verification before releasing the amount into the undertaking's account.

Because forms and checklists are revised from time to time, download the current set from the Aatmanirbhar Gujarat Schemes section of ic.gujarat.gov.in rather than reusing an older version.

How this scheme sits alongside the other incentives

The same GR also gives eligible large industrial undertakings:

• Net SGST reimbursement to 100% of net SGST for 10 years up to 7.5% of eligible FCI a year in Category 1 talukas for general sector projects, and up to 8% for thrust sector projects; 90% for 10 years up to 6.5% and 7% respectively in Category 2; and 80% for 10 years up to 5% and 5.5% respectively in Category 3. The ten-year period runs from the date of commencement of commercial production, and the undertaking must first use all eligible input tax credit in its credit ledger.
• EPF reimbursement to 100% of the employer's statutory EPF contribution paid for new employees working in Gujarat for 10 years from DoCP, capped per employee at 12% of basic salary plus dearness allowance and retaining allowance, or Rs 1,800 per month, whichever is lower.

An undertaking that has already taken an incentive for the same gross fixed capital investment under another state scheme cannot claim again here.

Common reasons a claim fails

• Investment below Rs 50 crore in plant and machinery, which puts the unit in the MSME bracket instead.
• Project inside an excluded municipal corporation limit.
• Term loan taken from an NBFC, which is explicitly outside the definition.
• Claim filed before the eligibility certificate is issued.
• Loan account in default during the claim period.
• Penal interest included in the claim, which is not reimbursable.
• Duplicate incentive already drawn on the same gross fixed capital investment under another state scheme.
• Commercial production not commenced within the operative period.

Key dates and where to get help

• 5 October 2022, GR No. MIS-102022-1271(2)-I issued; investment from this date counts.
• 4 October 2027: end of the notified five-year operative period.
• 2 November 2020, date of GR No. MIS-102020-347965-I, which fixes the taluka categories used for the subsidy table.

For queries, contact the Office of the Industries Commissionerate, Block No. 1, 2nd Floor, Udyog Bhavan, Gandhinagar 382 010, phone 23252683 / 23252617, or the General Manager of the District Industries Centre for the district where the project is located. Gujarat has since published the Viksit Gujarat Industrial Policy 2026, so applicants should confirm on ic.gujarat.gov.in whether any transitional or successor arrangement affects a project still under implementation.