Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is a government agency in India, established in 1991 under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, that manages the Software Technology Park scheme. It is an export oriented scheme for the development and export of computer software, including export of professional services. 

The STP Scheme provides various benefits to the registered units, which includes:

1. 100% foreign equity, 
2. tax incentives, 
3. duty-free import, 
4. duty-free indigenous procurement, 
5. CST reimbursement, 
6. DTA entitlement, 
7. deemed export etc.

STPI has played a seminal role in India having earned a reputation as an information technology superpower. STP units exported software and information technology worth Rs. 215264 crore in FY 2010-11. The state with the largest export contribution was Karnataka followed by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. STPI has a presence in many of the major cities of India including the cities of Bangalore, Mysore, Trivandrum, Bhilai, Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Pune, Guwahati, Noida, Mumbai, Nagpur, Kolkata, Kanpur, Lucknow, Dehradun, Patna, Rourkela, Ranchi, Gandhinagar-Gujarat, Surat, Imphal, Shillong, Nashik etc.

STPI centers provide variety of services, which includes:

1. High Speed Data Communication, 
2. Incubation facility, Consultancy, 
3. Network Monitoring, 
4. Data Center, 
5. Data Hosting etc. 
6. provides physical hosting for the National Internet Exchange of India
7. regulating the STP scheme

The tax benefits under the Income Tax Act Section 10A applicable to STP units has expired since March 2011. While the Government has chosen not to extend the Sec 10A benefits against the demand by the IT units, most of the STP registered SME units shall be affected, who now will have to pay Income Tax on profits earned from exports.