‘Unified authority will help IFSC achieve full potential’

"IFSC at Gift City, which has become operational, needs a coherent and integrated regulatory framework to fully develop and to compete with other offshore financial centres. The Government will establish a unified authority for regulating all financial services in IFSCs in India," said Jaitley while presenting the budget on Thursday.

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley speaks to the media as he enters the Parliament House to present the Union Budget, in New Delhi on Thursday. PTI Photo

The decision of the Union finance minister Arun Jaitley to establish a “unified authority” for regulating all financial services in International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) will help the centre at Gandhinagar, Gujarat achieve it’s full potential, say officials of GIFT City.

“IFSC at Gift City, which has become operational, needs a coherent and integrated regulatory framework to fully develop and to compete with other offshore financial centres. The Government will establish a unified authority for regulating all financial services in IFSCs in India,” said Jaitley while presenting the budget on Thursday.

The move was welcomed by Ajay Pandey, MD and Group CEO of Gift City. The announcement of setting up of Unified Regulator for IFSC in India would help India achieve its full potential in the Global Financial markets. Globally, most of the financial centres host Unified Regulator in the same Centre which helps it to promote the financial center,” said Pandey.

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The finance minister also provided two concessions to IFSC which included capital gains tax exemption on transfer of derivatives and certain securities by nonresidents. “Further, non-corporate taxpayers operating in IFSC shall be charged Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT) at concessional rate of 9 per cent at par with Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) applicable for corporates,” Jaitley said.

Reacting to the announcements, V Balasubramaniam, MD & CEO at India INX said, “All transactions on our exchange will now be exempt from capital gains (both long term and short term) in derivatives for all non-residents. Non-residents include both Foreign Portfolio Investors and Eligible Foreign Investors.”

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