What is GIFT City?
GIFT City is India’s only International Financial Services Centre, located in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. For regulatory and tax purposes it is treated as sitting outside India while being physically within it, which is what allows money to move in and out in foreign currency under a single Indian regulator.
Sources
Who regulates GIFT City, and what do they oversee?
The International Financial Services Centres Authority, created by Parliament in 2019 and operational since October 2020. IFSCA holds powers that domestically sit with four separate regulators (the RBI, SEBI, IRDAI and PFRDA), so banking, capital markets, funds, insurance and fintech all answer to one authority rather than four.
Sources
What sits inside the GIFT IFSC ecosystem?
Two international exchanges, IFSC Banking Units, fund management entities, custodians, trustees, administrators, insurance offices, broker-dealers and a bullion exchange. More than 1,000 entities were registered as at December 2025, which means the full chain now exists in one place rather than in parts.
Sources
How does money actually move through GIFT City
Going out, a resident remits under the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme through an authorised dealer bank to an IFSC Banking Unit, which places the money with a GIFT fund. Coming in, a non-resident wires foreign currency by SWIFT to the same banking unit. Returns travel back along the same path.
Sources
What tax advantages does GIFT City offer?
Securities listed on IFSC exchanges attract no capital gains tax on transfer, and there is no securities transaction tax, commodities transaction tax or stamp duty. IFSC units receive a ten-year tax holiday, and financial services within the centre fall outside GST. How much of this reaches you depends heavily on your residency.
Sources
What tax advantages does GIFT City offer?
Securities listed on IFSC exchanges attract no capital gains tax on transfer, and there is no securities transaction tax, commodities transaction tax or stamp duty. IFSC units receive a ten-year tax holiday, and financial services within the centre fall outside GST. How much of this reaches you depends heavily on your residency.
Sources
