Foreign investors of AIFs in IFSC given exemption from furnishing PAN

The government has granted an exemption to non-residents (NRs) investing in category I and category II alternative inv­e­s­tment funds (AIFs) located in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) from furnishing the permanent account number (PAN).

This was a long-standing demand from foreign investors wanting to pool money at IFSC, instead of other offshore jurisdictions, such as Mauritius and Singapore, which do not req­uire investors to obtain PAN. Currently, a sizeable number of overseas investors do not invest directly in AIFs but through offshore feeder funds.

The exemption will apply provided the TDS (tax deducted at source) has been deducted from