New Delhi: Industry on Tuesday hailed the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which proposes to simplify the tax exemption framework introduced under the Finance Act, 2026 for foreign companies procuring services from specified data centres in India.
The Bill removes the need for case-specific notifications for both foreign companies and data centres, while also recognising data centre facilities operated through ownership or leasing.
“While the Bill is currently before Parliament, the proposed changes is a positive step for the industry,” Nasscom said in a statement.
The revised proposal would help foreign cloud service providers and other foreign companies with workloads in India, including groups with GCC operations.
Their models may involve group entities, overseas resellers, Indian reseller arrangements, and cross border customer servicing. Removing foreign company notification reduces the risk that tax certainty depends on the entity named in an approval. The better test is whether the statutory conditions are met.
The industry chamber said it has been strongly advocating that the framework should remain grounded as a tax certainty enabler and not become an approval heavy scheme, or a route to impose wider investment, capacity, or sourcing conditions unrelated to the tax question.
“It also helps Indian data centre companies, as removing data centre notification reduces avoidable approval burden on the facility, while making Indian operated infrastructure easier for global customers to use,” said Nasscom, adding that the shift from an approval-based process to a condition-based regime would be a positive step.
The Bill seeks to amend the Income-tax Act, 2025, the Finance Act, 2026 and the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
One of the key proposals seeks to simplify the tax framework governing eligible offshore investment funds and eligible fund managers by reducing compliance requirements while retaining core safeguards. The Bill also proposes fresh tax exemptions for foreign investors in government securities.
(IANS)
