Budget 2018-I9 tax sops for IFSCs, which will have regulator

In a move to promote the International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) at GIFT City as a global hub, the government on Thursday, besides granting some tax concessions for certain categories of investors, said it will also set up a regulator to oversee financial services activity at all IFSCs.

The only operational IFSC in India currently is at the Gujarat International Finance Tec (GIFT) City in Gandhinagar.

"I propose to provide two more concessions for IFSC. In order to promote trade in stock exchanges located in IFSC, I propose to exempt transfer of derivatives and certain securities by non-residents from capital gains tax," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in the Lok Sabha while presenting the Union Budget 2018-19.

"Further, non-corporate taxpayers operating in IFSC shall be charged Alternate Minimum Tax at concessional rate of 9 per cent at par with the Minimum Alternate Tax applicable for corporates."

The Finance Minister also said the IFSC GIFT City needed a coherent and integrated regulatory framework to become more competitive with other offshore financial centres.

"The government will establish a unified authority for regulating all financial services in IFSCs in India," Jaitley told the Lok Sabha.

GIFT City is India's first operational smart city with a multi-industry India centric services zone as well as a special economic zone that houses the IFSC as a hub for global financial markets akin to London, New York, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Last year, the National Stock Exchange (NSE) launched its NSE IFSC exchange at GIFT IFSC.

In August last, markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) approved the launch of 85 additional derivatives in the stock exchanges of GIFT City IFSC.

--IANS

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