'Govt may have to relax SEZ rules on hiring fgn lawyers, accs'

The government may have to amend SEZ rules related to restriction on hiring of foreign lawyers and accountants for the smooth functioning of International Financial Services Centres, the first of which is being set up in GIFT SEZ, say officials.
Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) is India's first global financial hub of the country.
According to SEZ Rules, legal and accountancy services cannot be outsourced from overseas entities in the Special Economic Zones.
The rules, however, permit host of other services like off-shore banking, professional services (excluding legal services and accounting) and courier.
"Many MNCs who would be setting up units in the financial SEZ would like to retain services of their accountants and lawyers as they will be more comfortable with them. But the SEZ rule do not allow that, so the government has to review this," an official source said.

GIFT city in Gujarat is conceptualised as a global financial and IT services hub, a first of its kind in India, designed to be on or above par with globally benchmarked financial centres such as Shinjuku, Tokyo, Shanghai, Paris, London Dockyards.
GIFT master plan facilitates multi-services SEZ with IFSC (International Financial Services Centre) status, domestic finance centre and associated social infrastructure.
In a slew of incentives for GIFT city, the government had announced that security transaction tax, commodity transaction tax, dividend distribution tax and long term capital gain tax would be waived off for units located in IFSC, and they would be subject to minimum alternative tax (MAT) of 9 per cent only.