Haryana GCC Policy 2026: 75% CAPEX support and what a Gurugram GCC must commit to

Summary. Haryana notified the Global Capability Centres Policy, 2026 on 27 May 2026 and launched it on 1 June 2026, targeting more than 100 new GCCs and over 30,000 jobs across a five-year window. Capital expenditure reimbursement runs at 50% in non-TOD Gurugram, 65% in Gurugram's transit-oriented development zones and 75% in other districts. Operating expenditure support runs 5, 7 and 9 years on the same three tiers. The state already hosts more than 270 GCCs. The catch is on the commitment side: a unit must start commercial operations on or after 1 January 2026 and reach at least 100 employees with ESI and PF registrations within three years, and it must serve only its own group, with no third-party clients.

That last sentence disqualifies more India-entry plans than the incentive table attracts. Read the eligibility clauses before you model the subsidy.

What Haryana actually notified, and when

The policy was gazetted on 27 May 2026 and remains valid for five years from that date, or until a new policy or amendment supersedes it, whichever comes first, according to Grant Thornton Bharat's alert of 12 June 2026. Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini launched it on 1 June 2026 as one of ten sector policies aimed collectively at ₹5 lakh crore of investment and 10 lakh jobs over five years, The Tribune reported on 15 June 2026.

The stated objectives are narrow enough to be checkable: attract more than 100 new GCCs during the policy period, create more than 30,000 employment opportunities, and build Panchkula and Hisar into secondary GCC destinations alongside Gurugram. PwC India's tax alert records the same two headline targets.

The commercial context matters more than the press release. Haryana hosts over 270 GCCs, with Google, American Express, Oracle, SAP, Mastercard, Standard Chartered, Dell, Fidelity and HP among the multinationals operating out of Gurugram, but fresh investment has drifted south. Telangana is targeting 120 new GCCs by 2026, and India's GCC sector is projected to pass $135 billion by 2030 with more than 1.5 million high-skilled professionals. This policy is a defensive move by a state that used to win these decisions by default.

Amit Agarwal, Commissioner and Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Haryana, put the intent plainly when the policy launched: "This policy is about moving the needle from scale to sophistication. We are not just competing for numbers, we are competing for the highest-value global functions."

Who qualifies, and who does not

The policy defines a GCC as a unit set up in Haryana by a multinational corporation, or its parent, group, subsidiary or affiliate entity, to serve that group's own entities. Eligible functions are listed: research and development, product design and engineering, IT services, data analytics, finance and accounting, procurement, supply chain management, legal and compliance, human resources, and other shared enterprise functions.

Four eligibility conditions decide most cases.

Captive only. The unit must serve group entities. A centre that bills unrelated third-party clients falls outside the definition, which rules out the common hybrid where an India entity subsidises its cost base with external delivery work.

Operating structure. Build-operate-transfer, joint venture, hybrid and similar contractual arrangements are eligible, subject to prescribed conditions, provided effective control sits with the MNC or its group. This is the clause that makes a partner-led launch viable rather than forcing a day-one captive.

Start date. Units commencing commercial operations on or after 1 January 2026 and inside the policy validity period qualify. A centre that went live in 2025 is out for new-unit benefits, though existing units running expansion or diversification projects can claim against separate investment thresholds.

Headcount floor. The unit must employ a minimum of 100 people on payroll or contract, with ESI and PF numbers, within three years of commencing operations. Below that floor, the incentive framework does not apply.

For an expansion or diversification project, the additional fixed capital investment must be at least 50% of existing FCI, or at least 25% of existing FCI subject to a minimum of ₹125 crore, or above the threshold prescribed for mega or ultra-mega projects at that location. Total incentives under this policy plus any other state and central incentives for the same project are capped at 100% of FCI.

The incentive table, tier by tier

Haryana pays more the further you move from central Gurugram. That is a deliberate attempt to seed Panchkula and Hisar rather than deepen the Gurugram-Manesar concentration.

Support head	Non-TOD Gurugram	TOD zones, Gurugram	Other Haryana districts
CAPEX reimbursement rate	50% of eligible capital expenditure	65%	75%
OPEX reimbursement rate	50%	65%	65%
OPEX support duration	5 years	7 years	9 years
CAPEX disbursement	10 annual instalments	10 annual instalments	10 annual instalments
Employment subsidy duration	10 years from commercial operations	10 years	10 years

The percentages are the headline. The caps decide the cheque.

For CAPEX, owned space is capped at the lower of ₹3.75 crore per 100 eligible employees or ₹100 crore, ₹125 crore or ₹150 crore depending on area. Leased space is capped at the lower of ₹2.50 crore per 100 eligible employees or ₹50 crore, ₹75 crore or ₹100 crore depending on area. Both are released in ten annual instalments. That instalment schedule is the number most finance models get wrong: the fit-out is paid in year one and reimbursed across a decade, so the working capital gap, not the headline percentage, is what a treasury team should be sizing.

For OPEX, the annual ceiling is ₹0.75 crore per 100 eligible employees or ₹15 crore, whichever is lower. Eligible operating expenditure covers electricity charges, lease rentals counted at up to 75% of actual rent and subject to prescribed valuation limits, internet bandwidth charges, and cloud rental charges. Cloud rental sitting inside a reimbursable operating head is unusual in an Indian state incentive package, and for an engineering-heavy centre that line is often larger than the rent.

Hiring, training and R&D support

The employment side is where the ten-year horizon sits.

Scheme	Quantum	Duration and ceiling
Employment generation and capacity building subsidy	Up to 120% of average gross monthly salary for specified employee categories	10 years from commencement of commercial operations, linked to the proportion of Haryana local employees
Employer EPF reimbursement via HKRN	100% of the employer's statutory EPF contribution	5 years, capped at 12% of basic plus dearness allowance and ₹25,000 per employee per year
Job readiness programme	50% of the stipend paid to interns or apprentices	Up to ₹15,000 per intern per month for six months, up to 50 interns per unit per financial year
R&D centre capital support	50% of eligible capital cost	₹50 crore for ultra-mega, ₹25 crore for mega, ₹10 crore for other approved R&D centres
R&D centre operating support	50% of eligible operating expenditure	5 years, capped at ₹2 crore per R&D centre per year

The employment subsidy quantum is tied to the share of Haryana-domiciled employees in the workforce, with additional benefits for women, Scheduled Caste, Divyang and ex-servicemen categories, subject to prescribed salary and annual caps. Grant Thornton's alert expresses this head as a percentage of average gross monthly salary rather than a flat rupee amount, and several secondary summaries have converted it into a per-employee figure. Treat any per-employee number you are quoted as indicative until you have the scheme guidelines from the sanctioning authority.

R&D operating support is unusually specific about what counts: salaries of scientists and researchers, conference participation, publication costs, consumables and research materials. That is a shopping list written for a genuine lab, not a re-badged delivery floor. Haryana is also building an H-Hub incubator at the HARTRON Innovation Hub in Gurugram, and plans a Global Artificial Intelligence Centre in Gurugram with an advanced computing facility in Panchkula.

The clause that separates this policy from its neighbours

Most Indian state incentive policies fail on disbursement, not on design. A 75% headline rate is worth nothing if the claim sits in a file for two years.

Haryana wrote a payment guarantee into the policy. The nasscom community analysis of the policy records that 50% of an eligible incentive is released within seven working days of preliminary scrutiny of the claim, the balance within 45 working days after detailed scrutiny, and that 8% per annum interest becomes payable where the delay is attributable to the department, or such other rate as may be notified. PwC's alert confirms the broader commitment: time-bound processing of approvals and incentive claims, with interest payable for delays in disbursement.

Alongside that sit the Haryana Enterprises Promotion Centre, the Invest Haryana single-window portal, an AI-enabled Single Window 2.0 for approvals and land allocation, self or third-party certification for labour and environmental compliance, and a Haryana GCC Mission running investor facilitation and roadshows. Mega and ultra-mega projects can negotiate additional incentives above the standard package, subject to Haryana Enterprise Promotion Board approval on a cost-benefit analysis.

On launch day the state signed memoranda of understanding worth ₹1.10 lakh crore, including ₹30,000 crore in foreign direct investment commitments, with Anant Raj committing ₹20,000 crore to data centre infrastructure and the National Australia Bank Global Innovation Center, Reliance MET City and Sumitomo Corp India among the signatories.

How to decide: subsidised captive, BOT, or partner-run pod

The incentive package is real, but it rewards a specific shape of operation. Run the decision against the commitments, not the percentages.

Decision vector	Direct captive in Gurugram	BOT with a local partner	Partner-run engineering pod
Time to first production output	Slowest: entity, leases, hiring, compliance before code	Middle: partner operates from day one, transfer later	Fastest: existing entity, existing teams
Qualifies under the 2026 policy	Yes, if the 100-employee floor is met inside three years	Yes, BOT and JV structures are explicitly eligible	No, third-party service delivery falls outside the captive definition
Upfront capital exposure	Highest, and CAPEX reimbursement arrives in 10 annual instalments	Shared, partner carries setup	Lowest, operating expense only
Maintenance and attrition overhead	Owned in full	Owned after transfer	Carried by the partner
Data and IP control	Full, subject to your own controls	Contractual until transfer, then full	Contractual, needs explicit IP assignment
Sensible when	Headcount plan clears 100 with confidence and the function is strategic	The 100-employee target is credible but 24 to 36 months out	Headcount stays under 100, or the mandate is a product build rather than a capability centre

The honest reading: below roughly 100 engineers, the Haryana package is not the deciding factor, because you cannot claim it. A 40-person product team in Gurugram is a good idea for talent and cost reasons, not for subsidy reasons. Between 100 and 300 people with a three-year ramp, the BOT route lets you start delivering while the entity and the headcount catch up to the eligibility floor, and the structure stays inside the policy definition. Our own view, from running engineering teams in Gurugram since 2021: the expensive part of a capability centre is never the fit-out, it is the eighteen months of senior hiring before the centre produces anything a group CTO would trust.

This is the same arithmetic we set out in more detail in our GCC setup cost comparison for India, and the structural choice is covered in GCC versus product partner.

India-specific considerations

Three things sit outside the policy document but change the model.

Transfer pricing. Union Budget 2026 raised the safe harbour threshold from ₹300 crore to ₹2,000 crore at a uniform 15.5% margin, consolidating software development, IT-enabled services, knowledge process outsourcing and contract R&D into a single information technology services category. The draft amendments to the safe harbour rules were issued in February 2026 and are summarised by KPMG. For a captive billing its parent on cost-plus, that threshold change is worth more attention in the model than any single state subsidy line.

Data protection. A GCC handling group personal data inside India is a data fiduciary under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, and the consent, notice, security safeguard and breach reporting obligations apply to the India entity regardless of where the parent sits. Nothing in the Haryana policy alters that. Design the data architecture for it at the start, because retrofitting consent and residency into a running centre is the expensive path, as we set out in our DPDP Act engineering playbook.

State competition. Haryana is not bidding alone. Karnataka's data centre and GCC framework targets a different mix of infrastructure incentives, which we compared in Karnataka's data centre policy for GCC and AI infrastructure. Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra all run competing packages. Model at least two states before committing a site.

One more caution on the growth numbers that will be quoted at you. The $135 billion by 2030 projection is a sector forecast, not a committed spend, and the state-level targets are aspirations rather than budget lines: 100 new GCCs for Haryana, 120 for Telangana. Neither number tells you whether your function will get approved headcount. Name the source of every figure that enters the board pack, and stress-test the plan against the incentive you can actually claim under the eligibility clauses rather than the sector total.

A practical sequence for the next 90 days

Confirm the captive test first. If any part of the India plan involves third-party revenue, the policy is closed to that entity and the rest of the modelling is wasted.

Fix the site tier before the lease. The gap between 50% and 75% CAPEX reimbursement is the largest single variable in the package, and it is decided by which side of a TOD boundary or district line the building sits on.

Model the headcount ramp against the 100-employee floor and the three-year clock, not against the hiring plan you would like to run. The floor is a hard eligibility gate.

Re-paper the cloud and bandwidth contracts to India-registered entities with GST before the first invoice, or accept that those lines fall out of OPEX reimbursement for the whole support period.

Get the scheme guidelines, not the policy summary, before you put a subsidy number in the board pack. The gap between "up to 120% of average gross monthly salary" and a flat per-employee figure is exactly the kind of detail that moves a five-year model.

FAQ

When did the Haryana GCC Policy 2026 come into force?

The Government of Haryana notified the policy on 27 May 2026 and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini launched it on 1 June 2026. It stays valid for five years from the notification date, or until a new policy or amendment replaces it, whichever happens first, according to Grant Thornton Bharat.

What is the minimum headcount to qualify for incentives?

A unit must employ at least 100 people on payroll or contract, holding ESI and PF numbers, within three years of commencing operations. It must also start commercial operations on or after 1 January 2026 and inside the policy validity period. Below that headcount floor, the incentive framework does not apply to the unit.

Can a centre that serves external clients claim these incentives?

No. The policy recognises captive centres serving only their parent, group, subsidiary or affiliate entities, and excludes units servicing third-party clients. Build-operate-transfer, joint venture and hybrid structures are eligible provided effective control rests with the multinational or its group, subject to the prescribed conditions.

How much CAPEX support does a Gurugram GCC get?

Reimbursement of eligible capital expenditure runs at 50% in non-TOD areas of Gurugram, 65% in Gurugram TOD zones and 75% in other Haryana districts. Owned space is capped at the lower of ₹3.75 crore per 100 eligible employees or an area-based ceiling, and payouts arrive in ten annual instalments.

What operating costs are reimbursable under the policy?

Eligible operating expenditure covers electricity charges, lease rentals counted at up to 75% of actual rent subject to valuation limits, internet and bandwidth charges, and cloud rental charges. The annual ceiling is ₹0.75 crore per 100 eligible employees or ₹15 crore, whichever is lower. Bandwidth and cloud providers must be India-registered with GST.

What happens if Haryana delays an incentive payment?

The policy builds in a payment guarantee. Half of an eligible incentive is released within seven working days of preliminary scrutiny and the balance within 45 working days after detailed scrutiny, with 8% per annum interest payable where the delay is attributable to the department. PwC confirms time-bound processing of approvals and claims with interest for delays.

How does this compare with other Indian states competing for GCCs?

Telangana is targeting 120 new GCCs by 2026, and Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra run their own packages. Haryana's differentiators are the nine-year OPEX window outside Gurugram, the ten-year employment subsidy and the interest liability on delayed disbursement. Model at least two states before fixing a site.

Does the policy change our DPDP obligations?

No. A capability centre processing group personal data in India is a data fiduciary under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, and the notice, consent, security safeguard and breach reporting duties apply to the India entity regardless of the parent's location. The Haryana incentive framework does not alter any of that.

How eCorpIT can help

eCorpIT is a Gurugram-based engineering organisation, founded in 2021, working from Sector 83 in the same market this policy targets. We build and run senior-led engineering pods for global groups setting up in Haryana, including BOT arrangements that keep effective control with the parent while the entity and headcount ramp toward the policy's 100-employee threshold. We are CMMI Level 5, MSME certified and ISO 27001:2022 certified, and we design capability-centre platforms aligned with DPDP Act 2023 requirements from the first architecture review. If you are modelling a Gurugram or Panchkula capability centre and want the engineering side scoped against the eligibility clauses rather than the headline percentages, talk to our team.

References

1. Grant Thornton Bharat, "Government of Haryana announces Haryana Global Capability Centres (GCC) Policy, 2026", 12 June 2026
2. PwC India, "Government of Haryana notifies the Haryana Global Capability Centres Policy, 2026", 3 June 2026
3. The Tribune, "Haryana rolls out new industrial policy, bets on Gurugram to win back GCC crown", 15 June 2026
4. nasscom Community, "The Haryana Global Capability Centre Policy 2026"
5. PwC India tax alert PDF, Haryana GCC Policy 2026
6. CAalley, "Budget 2026: safe harbour threshold for IT firms raised to Rs 2,000 crore, at a 15.5% margin"
7. KPMG, "India: draft rules amending transfer pricing safe harbor regime", February 2026
8. nasscom Community, "GCC policies of India"
9. nasscom Community, "Haryana's GCC policy in India's multi city vision"
10. Complinity, "Haryana Global Capability Centre (GCC) Policy, 2026 notified"
11. The Policy Edge, "Haryana approves 10 mega industrial policies to drive ₹5 lakh crore investment"

Last updated: 3 August 2026.