Union Budget 2015: Regulations for investors will be in place by March 2016 for PM Modi's GIFT project

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat International Financial Tec-City or GIFT, one of the pet projects flagged off during the tenure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat as its chief minister, should hope to bag clientele from the international financial services sector in Gandhinagar one year from now. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Saturday announced that regulations for investors will be in place by March 2015.

“An investor-friendly tax regime should have positive impact on any international financial service provider since the cost of transactions from GIFT would be cheaper by 40% over Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai,” said Ramakant Jha, MD & Group CEO, GIFT Company Ltd. Once the rules and the framework of investment for international financial services sector is laid out in black and white by March 31, 2015, we could expect banking, insurance agencies, those dealing in international stock exchanges to set offices in GIFT, he said on the sidelines of the budget.

“A lot of companies we had been interacting with were waiting for the rules/framework for investment and taxation. They will be in wait and watch mode during this one year,” he said adding that inputs have been provided to the Ministry of Finance three months ago.

GIFT City has India’s first multi-service SEZ with International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) status which is catering to India's large financial services potential by offering global firms, world-class infrastructure and facilities. GIFT envisages to create 5 lakh direct and an equal number of indirect jobs. “Of the 5 lakh direct jobs, we expect 2 lakh alone to service the international clients,” he said. Near 14 banks, BSE, LIC, have already set up offices in GIFT so far.