Separate arbitration centre, taxes for IFSC

Centre and state work together to boost the initiative

In order to give a boost to the proposed International Financial Service Centre (IFSC) at Bandra-Kulra Complex (BKC), the Centre and the state governments have jointly started to work on a separate arbitration centre and taxation policies for multinational and national companies to set up their base in IFSC.

Commenting on the development, a senior state government bureaucrat said on condition of anonymity, “The arbitration centre will look into the disputes of the private companies that would set up their base at the IFSC.”

He further added, “There will also to be a separate taxation policy designed keeping in mind that the business set up in IFSC will come under the purview of special economic zone (SEZ) and a team under minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha.”

The state government has set up a temporary arbitration cell that is functioning from Nariman Point. It will be shifted to BKC after the IFSC is set up, claimed sources.

“The arbitration cell is required for resolution of disputes of the private firms at IFSC. Also, the state as well as the Centre will study the guidelines set up by the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI). In another six months, the government will be able to have a concrete policy framed for which we are studying models of various international arbitration acts,” the senior state government bureaucrat added.

The IRDAI is an autonomous apex body, which regulates the insurance business in the areas, which are marked as special economic zones.

The state also anticipates international insurance companies to come in and establish their ground at the IFSC. It is hence working on having mooted a ‘hub and spoke model’ where there will be multiple locations sourcing and a central location called the ‘hub’. The hub will act as a single point of contact for the client and the ‘spoke’ will be spread around different locations of the IFSC.

In May 2015, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had revived the proposal for the IFSC, which has only been on paper for close to six years now. Subsequently, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which is the special planning authority (SPA) of BKC is in the process of appointing a consultant to prepare a master layout plan for the IFSC.

The MMRDA has demarcated 20 acres of land in the BKC. However, according to the norms, SEZ can be declared in a minimum area of 50 hectares for which the state has requested the Centre to relax norms for BKC.