The Shipping Ministry said on July 10, 2026 that GIFT City IFSC units had been exempted from the Section 11 licensing requirement for chartering foreign vessels for export-import and international trade. Its announcement expressly said the coastal-trade framework was unchanged.
The distinction matters because ship leasing has its own financial-regulatory structure. IFSCA's framework, updated on May 20, defines a financial lease by the transfer of substantially all ownership-related risks and rewards; an operating lease does not transfer substantially all of them.
The framework also requires registration for lessors and compliance with applicable shipping laws and competent authorities' conditions. A business's permission to undertake a financial activity is therefore not the same question as a vessel's permission to carry particular traffic.
Read together, the two documents describe separate regulatory layers. The July announcement concerns the specified international chartering licence, while the IFSCA rules govern the leasing business. It would be misleading to describe either as blanket permission for foreign vessels to carry domestic coastal cargo.
