Resident Indian investors looking to diversify beyond US markets will soon have a direct, tax-smart pipeline into Europe’s leading fund products. BSE-promoted India INX Global Access (INX GA), operating out of GIFT City in Gujarat, is preparing to launch European UCITS ETFs and Mutual Funds by November this year.
The initiative will enable retail clients to trade products listed on major European bourses, including the London Stock Exchange (LSE), Euronext, and Deutsche Börse Xetra, expanding beyond the platform’s current US stock offerings.
“We are working on UCITS. There is a big difference in tax implications between direct exposure through US stocks and taking the same exposure through UCITS,” Ritesh Kumar Varshney, Manager and Director at India INX Global Access told businessline during an exclusive interaction. “We are going to offer two products: UCITS ETF and UCITS MF. We are planning to go live by November. This is our priority project,” he added.
UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) funds are domiciled in jurisdictions such as Luxembourg and Ireland. For Indian tax residents, taking exposure to global equities via Ireland-domiciled UCITS funds offers substantial tax savings compared to direct US stock holdings. While direct US equity investments attract a 30 per cent US withholding tax on dividends and trigger potential US estate taxes (up to 40 per cent) on holdings above $60,000, UCITS funds benefit from bilateral tax treaties that reduce dividend withholding to 15 per cent at the fund level and eliminate US estate tax liability entirely. “These feeder funds are more tax efficient because they are in a jurisdiction where most tax exemptions are there,” Varshney said, noting that while unit fractionalisation will not be available, entry points will remain accessible at around $100 per unit.
The product expansion follows a sharp rise in retail participation through GIFT City under the Reserve Bank of India’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS). Between 2018 and 2022, INX GA functioned primarily as an institutional pipeline for broker subsidiaries setting up in GIFT City. After pivoting to onboard individual retail investors in 2022, trading activity accelerated rapidly. Driven by surging interest from domestic retail investors, India INX Global Access has logged over $40 billion in cumulative trading volume since opening its platform to resident Indian individuals in 2022.
The exchange currently generates consistent monthly trading activity of $500 million to $1 billion, fuelled by a massive acceleration in user onboarding. Over a recent five-month stretch, the platform added 2.66 lakh retail investors — securing 66,000 new accounts between April and June before onboarding another 2 lakh clients across July and August — underscoring a dramatic retail shift toward global asset allocation via GIFT City.
“Paying $100, any Indian client can start investing. We are an aggregator or a technology platform,” Varshney said. To facilitate retail onboarding, INX GA operates a B2B2C model, partnering directly with domestic Indian brokerages. Over 150 Indian brokers have already tied up with the exchange to offer global products, including Dhan, Samco, Anand Rathi, Motilal Oswal, 5paisa, and SMC Global. For international order execution and clearing across European and US markets, INX GA has partnered with six global brokerages: Interactive Brokers LLC, DriveWealth, StoneX, Marex, TradeStation, and DriveTrade.
To invest, resident Indian clients transfer funds in rupees from their domestic bank accounts to their INX GA trading account in GIFT City, which operates as a deemed foreign jurisdiction under Indian law. Remitting banks verify compliance against the individual’s annual $250,000 LRS threshold and execute the INR-to-USD conversion. “This conversion fee is charged by the bank, and we are pushing banks to take lower fees,” Varshney noted. Once credited to the GIFT City account, USD balances reflect in the client’s trading app, where orders are routed to execution brokers across global bourses. Multi-currency conversions for European exchange listings will be handled directly through partner brokers.