The International Financial Services Centres Authority published a recap of its Corporate Treasury Conference 2026, held on April 29-30 at GIFT City, where it highlighted GIFT IFSC's role as a treasury hub for global corporates and the substantially revised 2025 Treasury Centre framework. The event brought together more than 250 participants from corporate treasury offices, banks and fintechs. In keynote remarks, Chairperson K. Rajaraman said the framework offers a wide range of permitted activities, transactions in 15 freely convertible foreign currencies, a light touch but robust regulatory approach, and tax and ecosystem advantages. Rajaraman also highlighted a Finance Bill 2026 amendment to extend the tax holiday for IFSC units to 20 consecutive years within a 25-year block of operations and provide tax certainty of 15 percent thereafter on business income. He said IFSCA is exploring allowing transactions in all freely convertible foreign currencies instead of the current 15 and adding commodity trading as a permissible activity in GIFT IFSC. Conference sessions also covered treasury governance, cross-border payments, cash concentration, virtual accounts, centralisation and treasury technology, including the Foreign Currency Settlement System, an RTGS-style interbank mechanism in GIFT IFSC that settles USD obligations among IBUs in about six seconds using ISO 20022 messaging and straight-through processing. Suggestions from speakers and participants will form the basis for future enablement.
India International Financial Services Centres Authority 2026-05-01
India's International Financial Services Centres Authority says it is exploring all freely convertible currencies and commodity trading for GIFT IFSC treasury centres
The India International Financial Services Centres Authority recapped its Corporate Treasury Conference 2026, highlighting GIFT IFSC’s positioning as a global treasury hub under a revised 2025 Treasury Centre framework that permits a wide range of activities, transactions in 15 freely convertible foreign currencies, and offers tax and ecosystem advantages. Chairperson K. Rajaraman noted a Finance Bill 2026 amendment extending the tax holiday for IFSC units to 20 consecutive years within a 25-year block, with 15 percent tax thereafter, and said the authority is exploring adding commodity trading as a permissible activity. Sessions also covered treasury governance, cross-border payments, cash concentration, virtual accounts, centralisation and treasury technology, including the Foreign Currency Settlement System, an RTGS-style mechanism settling USD obligations among IBUs in about six seconds using ISO 20022.