Head 2 / 20 · Banking Handbook Module 17 + 2022 Amendment Regulations · Live
Global Administrative Office (GAO)
Low-capital administrative shell for a banking group; USD 200,000 capital floor; the live GAO Eligibility Checker is at /ifsc-gao.
Global Administrative Office — The Practitioner's Booklet
A treatise-grade working reference on the licensing, capital, conduct-of-business and tax framework for Global Administrative Office at GIFT IFSC — every conclusion anchored in verbatim statutory and regulatory text.
The case for Global Administrative Office — before the rulebook.
GIFT IFSC competes head-on with Singapore, Dubai and Mauritius — on tax, on currency, and on access to India. Here is what actually moves the decision, before the regulatory detail below.
A 20-year tax holiday
100% deduction on business income for any 20 consecutive years in a 25-year block under Section 147 of the Income-tax Act 2025 (Finance Act 2026), then a 15% concessional rate. MAT capped at 9%.
US-dollar, offshore by law
An IFSC unit is treated as a person resident outside India under FEMA — raise, hold and transact in USD / EUR / GBP, with full foreign-currency freedom and no rupee-conversion drag.
100% foreign & NRI capital
Foreign and NRI investors can hold up to 100% — without the aggregate ownership caps that constrain comparable onshore vehicles.
An on-ramp to India
Unlike a purely offshore hub, GIFT IFSC sits on Indian soil and aligns with national policy — an offshore base that is also a door into one of the world's largest growth markets.
Zero STT, CTT & stamp duty
IFSC-exchange transactions are free of Securities and Commodity Transaction Tax and stamp duty; services rendered by IFSC units are zero-rated for GST.
One regulator, India's rule of law
A single unified regulator (IFSCA) under the IFSCA Act 2019, an independent judiciary, and a treaty-anchored legal order — certainty, not just headline rates.
The opportunity is real, but every benefit carries a condition — and that is where counsel at the threshold earns its place.
The full handbook
The Firm's complete practitioner handbook on this head is Booklet IX (PDF). Free to download. Cited verbatim throughout from the IFSCA / RBI / IRDAI / CBDT primary sources.
Where this head sits in the firm's library
- Booklets & practice compendia — the complete practitioner library, free to download.
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