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Salient features of GIFT City, Gandhinagar

GIFT City has been conceptualised as a global financial and information technology services hub. The design of GIFT City integrates state-of-the-art connectivity, infrastructure and transportation. The main goal is to develop GIFT City as a world-class hub to facilitate the delivery of a wide range of cross-border financial services to clients in other countries.

GIFt City has many advantages like:

Integrated development

The city is laid out on an area of 886 acres of land with 62 mn sq. ft. of Built Up area which includes Office spaces, Residential Apartments, Schools, Hospital, Hotels, Clubs, Retail and various Recreational facilities, which makes this City a truly “Walk to Work” City. This City is a Vertical City which will optimize land area consumption for development. The City is located on the bank of river Sabarmati connecting the Business capital (Ahmedabad) and Political capital (Gandhinagar) of Gujarat State- The Growth Engine of India.

Urban Infrastructure

GIFT City has designed an efficient infrastructure that is energy conserving and environment friendly. The city adheres to the green building principles with an urban planning that ensure the nature is preserved and wastage is reduced.

Desired quality of life

GIFT City offers a lifestyle that everyone desires. Right from smart use of technology, which includes automated waste collection, utility tunnel, district cooling system, GIFT City offers the best of everything. The residents of the city shall enjoy a cleaner and greener life along with recreational facilities including club house, sports and other forms of entertainment.

Business Opportunities

GIFT City is a planned business district in Gujarat. It is the new business destination offering competitive edge to Financial services and Technology related activities. The City is a great opportunity for the Services sector growth in India and there is an advantage for everyone to participate. Real Estate Developers and various Financial & IT/ITeS Institutions can be a part of one of the most ambitious infrastructure and technological Smart City project. Numerous Indian and foreign companies have already made a foray into the GIFT City.

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Will India become a global hub via gift city?

GIFT City is a dream project of our Honourable Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi. The International Financial Services Centre is the vision of the Indian government to make it a global hub for financial services transactions. This would translate into an increased flow of Foreign Direct Investments in India.

Several announcements made in the budget serve as an attraction for the foreign investors. Tax holidays have been announced for the offshore funds to redomicile into India, giving them the same tax benefits that they are enjoying in other places. SEBI has issued operational guidelines providing that registered foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) would be permitted to operate in IFSCs without undergoing any incremental approval process. To compete with other global financial hubs, several tax incentives have been offered to IFSC participants, as well as to nonresident investors and business partners. Minimum alternative tax is payable at a reduced rate of 9%. To promote the relocation of foreign funds to IFSCs, the Indian Finance Act, 2021 introduced a scheme, with effect from April 1, 2022, for the relocation of Alternative Investment Funds in India. A large amount of these AIFs lie outside India and the objective is to get the India centric Alternative Investment Funds to IFSC.

Another area of good business development which can infuse global trade and financing is the aircraft leasing and financing at IFSC. This business can also translate into billions of dollars of business. IFSCA has managed to attract various foreign banks in different versions. The budget has approved of giving tax advantages to the investment division of these foreign banks. GIFT IFSC can also become a preferred listing destination.

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These are some of the areas that IFSC is planning to capitalise on in order to make India a global hub for financial services transactions.

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Tax incentives for GIFT City IFSC

The government of India has been introducing various measures to strengthen the regulatory framework of GIFT City. GIFT City is the dream project of our Honourable Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and is set to become the first operational smart city of India. House to the first and only IFSC of India, GIFT City is the next preferred business destination.

GIFT City offers an ideal environment to do business. GIFT SEZ is a special area within the city which offers various advantages for conducting business activities. SEZ aims to boost the economy by exporting goods and services. GIFT City has been established to facilitate business in banking, finance, insurance and IT and ITES. SEZ, however, is an area designated in Gift city where one may set up units to carry specific manufacturing and trading activities and provide certain services.

GIFT City offers 5 major tax benefits:
-100% tax exemption
-9% Minimum alternate tax
-GST and customs duty for imports in SEZ exempt
-4% TDS on interest on overseas borrowing
-Long term capital gains tax and stamp duty exempt (Source:https://incorpadvisory.in/blog/tax-incentives-announced-in-budget/)

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GIFT city has a lot of economic and fiscal advantages. It has been meticulously planned and structured to lure foreign investors and institutions. The government has introduced various reforms in every budget over the last few years to boost GIFT city.

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Ahmedabad is India’s most affordable housing market

Pandemic had hit every sector hard, including real estate. The sector did witness a low for sometime, but in no time, people realised the importance of bigger and improved houses and that was a push to the real estate market sentiment. However, the two recent hikes in repo rate by RBI amounting to 90 basis points has decreased the home purchasing ability of people by 2% on an average across markets.

Despite the hike, however, markets remain largely affordable. Positive sentiment towards home ownership is giving the required boost. The good news is that among the top 8 cities, Ahmedabad has emerged as the most affordable housing destination based on EMI to income ratio for an average household. The ratio for Ahmedabad stands at 22%, according to Knight Frank Affordability Index.

Faster approvals , ample floor space index, robust transport system has led Ahmedabad to be consistently featured amongst the affordable cities since 2019.

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Among the remaining top five cities, Kolkata was the next most affordable at 27 per cent in the index for H1 2022, followed by Bengaluru (28 per cent), NCR (30 per cent), Hyderabad (31 per cent) and Mumbai (56 per cent).