Until now, Indians wanting to invest abroad had limited options — either via domestic mutual funds (restricted by RBI’s overseas limits) or directly through international brokerages. For most retail investors, picking the right stock or timing overseas markets has been a challenge.
At the Mint Money Festival 2025, Kalpen Parekh, MD and CEO of DSP Mutual Fund, and Vaibhav Shah, head of business development – strategy and international sales at Mirae Asset India AMC, outlined how funds launched on the GIFT City platform can simplify international investing.
“With the GIFT City route, you can now get professionally managed funds that invest in international markets on your behalf,” Parekh said. DSP MF recently launched the first retail fund from GIFT City, managed by Mumbai-based advisors while deploying capital abroad.
“It is international investing done for Indians, by Indian asset managers,” he added.
Minimum ticket size
The minimum investment in DSP’s retail fund is $5,000 (around ₹4.2 lakh), with incremental investments of $500.
Other fund houses are also exploring the space.
“We had already launched an outbound fund a couple of months back as a Category III AIF,” said Vaibhav Shah of Mirae Asset.
“In GIFT City, the minimum ticket size for such products is $150,000, so we attracted a lot of HNI (high net-worth individual) money. There is also the concept of accredited investors — those meeting certain income or net-worth criteria — for whom we kept the minimum at just $10,000. I’m sure all of us will also launch retail funds through the GIFT City platform eventually.”
Taxation challenges
Investors, however, need to watch out for taxation. Unlike India, where investors pay their own taxes, in GIFT City the fund itself pays tax before distributing returns.
“When we build a stock portfolio and earn dividend income, we have to pay the full marginal tax of 42%,” Parekh said. “So it is a higher tax slab than traditional mutual funds. Short-term capital gains (less than two years) are also taxed at marginal rates.”
To mitigate the short-term tax burden, Parekh said DSP will maintain 4–5% cash for outflows and levy a two-year exit load. “If you don’t have at least a seven-year horizon, no equity fund is right for you. If an investor exits before two years, the exit load collected will go back to the scheme and benefit existing investors.”
Disclosures and transparency
On disclosures, fund houses promise the same standards as regular mutual funds. “Transparency will be in line with Indian norms,” Parekh said.
Thorough communication is also part of the plan.
“Investors are used to fact-sheets and regular disclosures. But global markets are more complex,” said Shah. “So we believe it’s important to share knowledge — why we are investing in the US or China, or in specific global themes — so investors can make informed decisions,” he added.
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