Viksit Gujarat Industrial Policy 2026: Large, Mega and Ultra Mega incentives explained

On 8 September 2026 the Industries and Mines Department issued two Government Resolutions that together define what a large manufacturing investment in Gujarat can now claim: the Scheme for assistance to Large, Mega and Ultra Mega Industries under Viksit Gujarat Industrial Policy 2026, and the taluka classification that every incentive scheme under the policy will use. We have read both line by line, transcribed every slab, and built a calculator on top of them. This is the plain-language version.

Want the number for your project first? The calculator applies all 14 slabs, the ceilings and the EPF reimbursement to your inputs. Open the subsidy calculator

The headline numbers

• Operative period: 1 June 2026 to 31 May 2031. Assets acquired and paid for from 1 January 2026 count towards eligible investment.
• Capital subsidy of 10% to 35% of eligible fixed capital investment, paid in equal annual instalments over 8, 10 or 12 years.
• Interest subsidy of 7% per annum on bank or FI term loans, with the unit bearing at least 2%.
• Power tariff subsidy of ₹2 per unit in Category A talukas and ₹1 per unit in Category B.
• Combined ceiling on those three components of 15% to 50% of eligible investment, plus a per-year ceiling with no carry forward.
• EPF reimbursement of the full employer contribution for 8 or 10 years, capped at ₹1,800, ₹2,500 or ₹3,000 per employee per month.
• Electricity duty exemption for all, and 100% stamp duty reimbursement for Ultra Mega units and the five selected thrust sectors.

Who is Large, Mega or Ultra Mega

Size is defined by investment and, above ₹1,000 crore, by jobs. A Large industrial undertaking is one with more than ₹125 crore invested in plant and machinery. A Mega undertaking needs gross fixed capital investment of at least ₹1,000 crore and at least 250 direct jobs, with 50 more jobs required for every additional ₹200 crore. An Ultra Mega undertaking needs ₹10,000 crore and 3,000 jobs, plus 500 jobs for every further ₹5,000 crore. Direct employment includes contract staff engaged through agencies registered with the labour department.

Two things trip people up. Mega and Ultra Mega status exists only in thrust sectors; a general-sector project of any size is assessed as Large. And a thrust-sector project that clears the investment bar but not the employment bar does not fall out of the scheme - the GR explicitly treats it as a Large undertaking in its sector class, which is often still a very good outcome.

Three sector classes, two taluka categories

Every slab is indexed on two axes. The first is the sector class. General sectors are everything not on the list. Thrust sectors are the sixteen in Annexure-A: green energy, mobility, capital equipment, metals and minerals, textiles, sustainability, agro processing, chemicals, healthcare and pharma, semiconductor ancillaries, nuclear power equipment, vehicle scrapping, e-waste recycling, textile-waste recycling, shipping containers and heavy earth-moving equipment. Chemical and pharma units must have a captive effluent treatment plant or CETP access. Selected thrust sectors are a short, deliberate list with the richest slab: sports goods, toys, footwear, robots and drones.

The second axis is the taluka. The 2020 policy used three tiers over 251 talukas. The 2026 GR replaces that with two: 130 talukas in Category A, which get the higher slab, and 138 in Category B. The big industrial nodes are B - Ahmedabad City, Sanand, Surat City, Vadodara, Rajkot, Ankleshwar, Vapi, Mundra, Bhuj, Gandhidham. Dholera, Dhandhuka, most of the tribal belt and the Saurashtra interior are A. Four taluka names appear in two districts with different categories, so always read the category against the district.

All 268 talukas, district by district, searchable. See the Category A and B list

The full slab matrix

All percentages are of eligible fixed capital investment (EFCI). Interest subsidy is 7% on the term loan in every row; the column shows the cumulative cap. Power tariff is ₹2 per unit in A and ₹1 in B; the column shows its cumulative cap. The combined ceiling applies to the three components together over the period; the per-year ceiling applies each year with no carry forward, subject to an absolute annual cap of ₹150 crore (Large), ₹300 crore (Large thrust and selected), ₹750 crore (Mega) or ₹1,250 crore (Ultra Mega).

Unit	Sector	Taluka	Capital subsidy	Interest cap	Power cap	Combined ceiling	Per year	Period
Large	General	A	15%	15%	15%	20%	2.0%	10 yrs
Large	General	B	10%	10%	10%	15%	1.5%	10 yrs
Large	Thrust	A	25%	20%	20%	35%	4.5%	8 yrs
Large	Thrust	B	15%	15%	15%	25%	3.5%	8 yrs
Mega	Thrust	A	25%	25%	25%	35%	3.5%	10 yrs
Mega	Thrust	B	20%	20%	20%	30%	3.0%	10 yrs
Ultra Mega	Thrust	A	30%	25%	25%	40%	3.5%	12 yrs
Ultra Mega	Thrust	B	25%	20%	20%	35%	3.0%	12 yrs
Large	Selected thrust	A	35%	20%	20%	50%	6.5%	8 yrs
Large	Selected thrust	B	30%	20%	20%	45%	6.0%	8 yrs
Mega	Selected thrust	A	35%	20%	20%	50%	5.0%	10 yrs
Mega	Selected thrust	B	30%	20%	20%	45%	4.5%	10 yrs
Ultra Mega	Selected thrust	A	35%	20%	20%	50%	4.5%	12 yrs
Ultra Mega	Selected thrust	B	30%	20%	20%	45%	4.0%	12 yrs

A unit chooses any one component or any combination. In practice everyone takes all three and lets the ceilings do the work, which brings us to the part of the GR that actually determines the cheque.

Why the per-year ceiling is the number that matters

Take a Large thrust-sector plant in a Category A taluka with ₹500 crore of eligible investment, a ₹300 crore term loan at 9.5% and a meaningful power load. On paper the three components are worth 25% plus up to 20% plus up to 20% of EFCI. But the combined ceiling is 35%, or ₹175 crore, and the per-year ceiling is 4.5%, or ₹22.5 crore. Capital subsidy alone is ₹15.6 crore a year. Add ₹21 crore of interest subsidy in year one and the power tariff, and the year is already over the ceiling before the capital instalment is fully counted. The excess is not deferred. It is gone.

This is why the timing of the term-loan draw-down, the moratorium, and the capacity ramp are incentive decisions and not just financing decisions. A unit that front-loads everything can forfeit a material slice of its capital subsidy; a unit that paces consumption and repayment across the period collects close to the full ceiling. Model it before the loan is structured, not after.

Rule of thumb: if per-year ceiling multiplied by period is less than the combined ceiling, the annual cap is the binding constraint and pacing matters. That is true for every Large thrust and selected-thrust slab in this GR.

What counts as eligible investment

Every percentage is applied to EFCI, so the definition is worth more than any slab. Eligible: new buildings at actual cost or the R&B Schedule of Rates, whichever is lower; other construction such as compound walls, internal roads, bore wells and pipelines; new plant and machinery including transport, erection, electrification, captive power, in-premises material handling, effluent treatment and DG sets up to 50% of connected load or 25 MW; technology, designs and patents up to 10% of plant and machinery; and project-related infrastructure such as worker housing, feeder roads, dedicated utility lines, training centres and worker transport, at 100% if inside the premises and 20% if outside.

Not eligible: land and land development, working capital, goodwill, royalty, pre-operative expenses, second-hand or leased or rented machinery, capitalised interest, power plants except captive use, rented or leased buildings outside GIDC, consultancy and supervision fees without technology acquisition, and independent power plants including renewable. The Provisional Eligibility Certificate is issued on a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Engineer certificate of exactly this working, which is why the quality of the EFCI computation sets the value of the whole claim.

Expansion and diversification qualify, with conditions

An existing unit can claim for an expansion if it raises gross fixed capital investment excluding land by at least 50%, puts at least 60% of that into plant and machinery, raises installed capacity of the expanded product by at least 50%, and has run at 75% or more of existing capacity in any one of the previous three financial years. Diversification needs the same 50% and 60% tests without the capacity condition. Renovation, modernisation and rationalisation spending is excluded. Any undertaking can claim a maximum of two times during the operative period.

EPF, electricity duty, stamp duty and the selected-sector extras

Outside the three-component ceiling sit several further benefits. EPF reimbursement returns 100% of the employer's statutory contribution for new employees without a prior UAN, for 10 years in most slabs and 8 years for Large thrust-sector units, capped per employee per month at ₹1,800 for men, ₹2,500 for women and ₹3,000 for specially-abled staff, and at 12% of basic plus DA. Electricity duty exemption under the 1958 Act applies to all eligible units. Stamp duty and registration charges on project land are reimbursed in full for Ultra Mega thrust-sector units and for all selected thrust sectors, on application within three months of commercial production.

The five selected thrust sectors also get 75% of IPR registration costs up to ₹1 crore, 75% of technology acquisition costs up to ₹5 crore, 100% of international certification fees up to ₹5 crore, training support of up to ₹15,000 per Gujarat-domiciled employee per month for twelve months, and 50% of the cost of a creative design studio up to ₹50 crore. For Mega and Ultra Mega projects in thrust sectors a High Power Committee chaired by the Chief Minister can sanction a customised package beyond all of this.

The deadlines that decide everything

1. Registration with the Industries Commissioner before the date of commercial production, or by 8 December 2026, whichever is later - with IEM, land documents, GPCB consent, DPR and loan sanction letter.
2. Provisional Eligibility Certificate application within three months of commercial production, on the CA and Chartered Engineer certificate. The PEC covers up to 40% of EFCI.
3. Completion of investment within the eligible period: 18 months from commercial production for projects up to ₹1,000 crore, 24 months up to ₹10,000 crore, 36 months up to ₹1,00,000 crore and 48 months beyond.
4. Final Eligibility Certificate application within three months of completing investment, followed by physical asset verification and committee sanction.
5. Claims every quarter thereafter. Applications more than three months late are cut proportionately; more than a year late are not entertained.

Standing conditions run for the whole incentive period: at least 85% Gujarat-domiciled employees overall and 60% in managerial and supervisory roles, GPCB certificates on file, continuous production, and total state plus central incentives not exceeding EFCI. Breach means recovery as arrears of land revenue with 18% interest.

Old scheme or new scheme

Units that commenced commercial production before 1 June 2026 stay on the 2022 Aatmanirbhar Gujarat schemes. Units that have not yet commenced may choose either, but must exercise the option within six months of the GR - by 8 March 2027 - and the choice is irrevocable. The 2022 route also requires commercial production on or before 4 October 2027. After the six-month window every application is assessed under the 2026 scheme with eligible investment counted from 1 January 2026. For a project already past financial closure, run both scenarios on the same EFCI before choosing; the taluka reclassification alone can flip the answer.

What to do this month

• Confirm the taluka category against the district, not just the name.
• Classify the product against Annexure-A and, if it is on the selected list, plan for the richer slab and its extra conditions.
• Build the EFCI working under the GR exclusion list and pressure-test the plant-and-machinery number against the ₹125 crore line.
• Model the per-year ceiling against your loan draw-down, moratorium and capacity ramp before the term sheet is signed.
• If commercial production could fall either side of 1 June 2026, compare the 2022 and 2026 outcomes now; the option window closes on 8 March 2027.
• Diarise registration, the PEC window and the quarterly claim cycle - the GR does not forgive late paperwork.

We prepare the EFCI working and the CA certificate the PEC depends on, coordinate the Chartered Engineer, structure the draw-down so the annual ceiling does not eat the capital subsidy, and run the claim cycle for the full period. Send us your DPR and we will return the modelled number and the scheme comparison within a week.