📢 New IFSCA Fee Circular 2025: Simplified, Structured & Sector-Smart | Your Complete Guide

GIFT CFO
4 days ago
3 min read

The International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) has issued a comprehensive new fee circular on April 8, 2025, consolidating and revising all earlier circulars. This landmark update enhances transparency, compliance ease, and sectoral clarity for all players in GIFT City’s international financial ecosystem.

Let’s break down what’s new and how IFSCA Fee Circular impacts your business.

📜 Key Objectives of the New Circular

Consolidation: Replaces five earlier circulars and Schedule I of the July 2024 circular.
Clarity: Each fee category and sub-category is now explained with detailed illustrations.
Comprehensiveness: Covers everything from application to activity-based and informal guidance fees.
Customisation: Sector-specific fee structures for banking, insurance, capital markets, fintech, and more.

🧾 What Types of Fees Are Covered?

The new circular outlines seven core categories of fees:

Application Fees: at the time of Application to IFSCA
License/Registration/Authorization Fees: at the Time of Approval of License/Registration/Authorization
Recurring Fees (Flat & Conditional based on turnover/employees): Yearly renewal fees Starting from the Year in which you get the Approval of License/Registration/Authorization
Activity-Based Fees: Fees for Carrying Out Such Activity in GIFT IFSC.
Processing Fees: Changes in License/Registration/Authorization Processing Fees or Modification of Condition Fees
Late Fees: Penalty & Interest for Late Payment of Any of the Fees.
Informal Guidance Fees: Specific Scheme for the Guidance of the IFSCA under Informal Guidance Scheme

💼 Key Highlights & Practical Takeaways

🔹 1. Application & Licensing Fees

Multiple applications = Multiple fees (even for same entity under different regulations)
Payment due within 15 days of approval to avoid rejection.

✅ Clarity + firm deadlines = better planning

🔹 2. Recurring Fees: Flat vs Conditional

📌 Flat Recurring Fees

Pro-rata for the year of grant.
Due every year by April 30.

📌 Conditional Recurring Fees (based on turnover/employee count)

Payable in 2 stages:
- Advance based on past year’s data
- Final adjustment after year-end

📊 Illustrations provided in the circular ensure better compliance visibility.

🔹 3. Activity-Based Fees

Fees linked to specific activities like:

Listing securities
Investment schemes
Custody turnover
Trading volumes

💡 Ensures fairness and alignment with actual business scale.

🔹 4. Processing Fees: More Defined Scenarios

Situation	Fee
Regulatory waiver/relaxation	$2,500
Substantive modification (business expansion, control change)	20% of original fee
Aircraft/ship leasing office use	$2,500
KMP/Director change approval	$250 (max)

🛠️ Streamlines application tracking and avoids ambiguities.

🔹 5. Late Fees – Now With Penalty Interest!

0.75% monthly interest on overdue fees
$100/month for each late return filing

⚠️ Timely compliance has financial consequences now.

🔹 6. Informal Guidance Scheme: A New Era

$1000 fee per request
If ineligible → $750 refunded, $250 retained as processing

✉️ Great for clarity seekers: Get “no-action” or “interpretative” views from IFSCA directly.

🔹 7. Payment & Documentation Clarity

USD for all entities; INR allowed only for Indian applicants (application & registration fees only).
RBI reference rate applicable for INR remittances.
Payment proof to be submitted in IFSCA’s prescribed format (Schedule II).