Setting up in GIFT City: what the GIC route actually requires

This guide explains what registering a Global In-House Centre (GIC) in GIFT IFSC actually requires, using the IFSCA regulations, the IFSCA fee circular and the Income-tax Act as they stood in September 2026. It does not advise on whether your group should take the route, and it does not cover the Gujarat state incentives that sit outside the IFSC regime and are described in the state incentives guide.

What the route is

GIFT IFSC is India's International Financial Services Centre, regulated by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA). A GIC is a unit inside the IFSC that provides services related to financial products and financial services to its own group. The IFSCA (Global In-House Centres) Regulations, 2025 were notified on 24 December 2025, published in the Gazette on 29 December 2025 and took effect on publication. They replace the 2020 regulations, which the IFSCA GIC page now marks as repealed. IFSCA's FAQs of 13 February 2026 say units registered under the old regulations had 90 days from commencement to align.

Who can register: the financial services group test

Regulation 4 says only an entity that falls within the definition of a Financial Institution Group may apply. The definition covers group entities engaged in financial services or financial activities, and lists banks, non-banking financial companies, financial intermediaries, investment banks, insurers, reinsurers, actuaries, brokerages, funds, stock exchanges, clearing corporations, depositories and custodians, without being limited to them. Entities count as a group if linked by parent and subsidiary, joint venture or associate relationships, a common brand name, an equity or capital contribution of 20 per cent or more, membership of a network, or another arrangement IFSCA permits. Whether an applicant meets the test is decided by IFSCA, and that decision is final. A third party may apply only where the operating model allows it and only with the group's prior written permission.

Announced versus policy: everything in this section is policy, set out in a gazetted regulation.

What a GIC may do, and for whom

Regulation 8 limits a GIC to services related to financial products and financial services, provided to group entities that are non-resident and located outside jurisdictions the Financial Action Task Force flags as high risk. Four operating models are recognised: captive, build-operate-transfer, joint venture and hybrid. Two openings toward India exist. A GIC may serve a group entity in India, but that revenue must not exceed 10 per cent of the GIC's total revenue in a financial year. And a group entity outside India that already serves Indian group companies may bring that work into the IFSC with prior IFSCA approval. A GIC may not be set up by transferring an existing contract or work arrangement from an Indian group entity. In plain terms: the route is for work the group would otherwise do offshore, not for onshoring an existing Indian back office.

Legal form and physical presence

The applicant must be a company or LLP incorporated in the IFSC, a branch of a company or LLP incorporated outside the IFSC, or another form IFSCA allows. Promoters must not come from a FATF high-risk jurisdiction. The unit must appoint a principal officer and a compliance officer, and regulation 10(3) requires both to be full-time employees located in the IFSC. The FAQs add that a GIC must at all times hold a valid Letter of Approval as an SEZ unit from the Office of the Administrator. This is not a registration you can hold from a Bengaluru or Hyderabad address; it needs premises in the GIFT SEZ and people on site.

The unit operates in a specified foreign currency and keeps its balance sheet in that currency. It may open an INR account for administrative and statutory expenses. Financial reporting to IFSCA is in US dollars unless IFSCA specifies otherwise.

Registration process and fees

No unit may begin GIC operations until it holds a certificate of registration. The steps under regulations 6 and 7 are:

1. Apply through the Single Window IT System (SWIT) with the documents and the application fee.
2. Cure any deficiency IFSCA identifies within 30 days, or the application is rejected after a hearing.
3. Receive in-principle approval and meet its conditions within 180 days, extendable on application.
4. Receive the certificate of registration, which stays valid until suspended, cancelled or voluntarily surrendered with IFSCA's acceptance.

Fees are set by the IFSCA fee circular of 2 March 2026. For a GIC the application fee is US$1,000, the registration fee is US$2,500, and the flat annual fee is US$2,500. A conditional annual fee is added by turnover: nil below US$1 million, US$2,500 from US$1 million to under US$5 million, US$5,000 to under US$25 million, US$7,500 to under US$50 million, and US$10,000 above that. The registration fee is payable within 15 days of the in-principle approval. Fees are payable in USD, with application and registration fees remittable in INR by Indian applicants.

Tax position

Section 80LA(1A) of the Income-tax Act allows a unit of an IFSC a deduction of 100 per cent of eligible income for any ten consecutive assessment years out of fifteen, at the unit's option, beginning with the year in which permission or registration was obtained under the IFSCA Act, 2019 or the other Acts listed. That is the statutory basis for the tax holiday; the years are chosen once and run consecutively.

The IFSCA and Invest India GIC brochure, dated 2021, summarises the IFSC regime as 100 per cent corporate tax exemption for 10 of 15 years, a concessional minimum alternate tax rate of 9 per cent (not applicable to companies opting for the concessional rate under Section 115BAA), 0 per cent GST, and 0 per cent stamp duty. Read the footnote: the stamp duty line refers to specified securities transferred on recognised stock exchanges in the IFSC, not to a general exemption on leases or property. The brochure predates the 2025 regulations and Budget changes since; confirm each line against the current Act before relying on it.

How many GICs exist

The IFSCA Bulletin for January to March 2025 lists IFSCA approvals based on SEZ letters of approval as on 31 March 2025: one GIC (large) and two GIC (mid-size), out of 790 unique entities across all categories, including in-principle and provisional approvals. The IFSCA page links a list of registered GICs dated 18 June 2025, but that directory page returned an error when fetched. The IFSCA directory does carry a Global In-House Centres category. Treat the count as small and check the directory yourself.

Where it differs from a private limited company in Bengaluru or Hyderabad

• Location is fixed: the unit sits in the GIFT SEZ with an SEZ letter of approval, and its principal and compliance officers must be based there. A private limited company can sit anywhere.
• Who you may serve is fixed: financial services groups only, and the group's non-resident entities, with India capped at 10 per cent of revenue. A private limited company may serve anyone the group chooses.
• Currency and reporting: operations in a specified foreign currency, reporting in US dollars, plus IFSCA registration and annual fees. A private limited company reports in INR under the Companies Act alone.
• Tax: the Section 80LA holiday is a central statutory deduction with a fifteen-year window. State GCC incentives in Karnataka, Telangana or Maharashtra are reimbursements negotiated under state policy and are not available inside the IFSC regime in the same way.

Who this is for, and who it is not for

The route fits a bank, insurer, asset manager, exchange or similar financial group that wants a captive or build-operate-transfer centre serving its offshore entities, and that values a USD operating base and the 80LA deduction more than a free choice of city. It does not fit a technology, retail, pharmaceutical or manufacturing group, because the financial institution group test excludes them. It does not fit a centre whose main customer is the group's Indian business, because of the 10 per cent cap and the ban on transferring Indian contracts. And it does not fit a plan that depends on hiring in an existing city; the address is GIFT City or nothing.

Check before you rely on this

• The GIC count and the directory: fetch the IFSCA list of registered GICs, which we could not open, before quoting any number.
• The fee circular: IFSCA revised fees in April 2025 and again in March 2026, and may do so again for the next financial year.
• The tax lines in the 2021 brochure, especially MAT, GST on services from India and stamp duty, against the current Income-tax Act and any Gujarat state notification.