Government proposes sweeping tax rule changes to attract offshore funds - what it means

The government has proposed a major easing of the eligibility norms for Eligible Investment Funds (EIFs) managed from India as part of its efforts to establish the country as a global fund management hub. Under the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, offshore funds seeking tax exemption on their global income will no longer have to comply with conditions such as maintaining at least 25 investors, limiting any single investor's participation to 10%, restricting investments of more than 25% of the corpus in one entity, avoiding investments in associate entities, or maintaining a minimum average monthly corpus of Rs 100 crore.The Bill, which has been circulated among Members of Parliament, is expected to be introduced in the Lok Sabha shortly by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.It also proposes to remove the separate exemption criteria applicable to funds operating from the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC).