The West Bengal government is increasing the daily working hours limit by 30 minutes from July 1, meeting the long-standing demand of the information technology industry, IT Industry Minister Babul Supriyo said on Friday.

However, the 48-hour weekly limit remains unchanged, he said.

A government order is expected shortly.

Supriyo said in order to keep pace with competition from other states and boost West Bengal's IT sector, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has given the green signal to change the daily working hour limit from 8 hours and 30 minutes to 9 hours.

"The overall weekly working hour limit of 48 hours remains unchanged. The industry was asking to increase the daily working hour limit as they normally follow a 5-day work week. This means that IT sector companies can bill their clients for 45 hours instead of 42.5 hours now. It will be effective from July," the minister said.

With 9 hours a day, the industry will benefit by 2.5 hours per week for billing their clients, helping them financially, and enabling them to compete with other states that offer similar working hour flexibility.

Currently, the daily working hours limit of 8 hours and 30 minutes is the same for both IT and non-IT sectors, according to the state labour department.

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