Budget 2019 proposes tax incentives to make GIFT City global financial hub

Standard Chartered Bank is setting up an international banking unit primarily to look after Indian company requirements

 Thanks to several incentives announced in the Budget, the country’s first international financial services centre, the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City or GIFT City, is poised to take off. 

The government announced a 100 per cent tax holiday for 10 out of 15 years, no dividend distribution tax out of current and accumulated profits, long-term capital gains exemptions to Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) for international financial services centre-listed securities, exemption from withholding tax on interest paid on debt securities issued in GIFT, and exemption for mutual funds set up in GIFT City. Two large foreign banks, including Standard Chartered of the UK