Home / Jurisdictions / Why GIFT City
The opportunityIndia’s first International Financial Services Centre — an offshore financial jurisdiction inside India, governed by a single unified regulator.
Two regimes on one unit, under one regulator.
GIFT City — Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, at Gandhinagar — is a planned financial district. Part of it is notified as a Special Economic Zone under the SEZ Act, 2005. A business operating there is an SEZ unit: it holds a Letter of Approval from the Development Commissioner that fixes what it is permitted to do, what fiscal benefits it gets, and which periodic returns it files for the life of the unit.
Within that SEZ sits India’s first International Financial Services Centre. The IFSC is a financial jurisdiction: units there deal in freely convertible foreign currency, serve non-residents and other IFSC units, and sit outside India’s domestic exchange-control perimeter. Geographically it is in India. For exchange control and for most regulatory purposes, it is not.
The International Financial Services Centres Authority was established under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019 and became operational in October 2020, with its headquarters at GIFT City, Gandhinagar. It regulates and develops financial products, financial services and financial institutions in India’s IFSCs.
Registration and authorisation across every permitted activity — banking units, fund management entities, capital market intermediaries, insurers and reinsurers, lessors, bullion participants, fintech and ancillary service providers.
Regulations, circulars, directions, master circulars, FAQs and consultation papers — the operating rulebook for IFSC units, which is why tracking IFSCA issuances is a continuing obligation rather than an annual exercise.
Inspection, periodic reporting, compliance audits, AML/CFT oversight and enforcement — alongside a development mandate to grow the centre, which is unusual for a financial regulator.
This is the point most set-up plans get wrong: the Letter of Approval and the IFSCA registration are separate instruments, obtained from separate authorities, with separate return calendars that both run for the life of the unit.
IFSCA consolidates the powers of RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA for IFSC units — a single window for licensing, supervision and approvals.
A 100% deduction on business income for 20 consecutive years out of 25 under s.147 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, then a 15% rate under s.218.
Operations, capital and settlement in USD and other major foreign currencies, outside the domestic exchange-control perimeter.
India INX, NSE IFSC and the India International Bullion Exchange, with global brokers, custodians and clearing members on the ground.
Banking, funds and FME, capital market intermediaries, insurance and reinsurance, aircraft and ship leasing, fintech, bullion, GCCs and ancillary services.
Every IFSC unit is also an SEZ unit. The Letter of Approval governs permitted activity, fiscal benefits and a return calendar that runs alongside the IFSCA one.
Set-up touches the SEZ Development Commissioner, IFSCA, the MCA, your banker and the exchanges — usually in that order, and usually with dependencies running between them.
Business model validation, licence mapping, entity and tax structure, cost-benefit analysis.
Name reservation, DSC, charter documents, incorporation, PAN, TAN and IEC.
SEZ application, liaison, Letter of Approval and post-LOA compliances.
Application, query handling, liaison and the registration certificate.
Banking and AD code, office space, exchange membership, entry into the compliance calendar.
Whether you are setting up a new IFSC unit, restructuring an existing one, or need ongoing compliance support for a regulated entity in India or a group company overseas — we would be glad to talk.
