Notification No. 84/2015 [F.No.133/43/2015-TPL]/S.O. 2877(E)

[To BE Published in the Gazette of INDIA. Extraordinary, Part II, section 3, Subsection (ii)]

What this is

Notification No. 84/2015 [F.No.133/43/2015-TPL]/S.O. 2877(E) was published on 20 October 2015. Its subject is [To BE Published in the Gazette of INDIA. Extraordinary, Part II, section 3, Subsection (ii)].

This amends the Income-tax Rules. What it changes is the Rules, not the Act — and a rule can never take away what the section gives.

What it does

Made under section 295 read with clause (47) of section 10 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the Income-tax (17th Amendment) Rules, 2015 substitute sub-rules (1) and (2) of rule 2F of the Income-tax Rules, 1962, which sets the conditions for an infrastructure debt fund. As substituted, sub-rule (1) requires the Infrastructure Debt Fund to be set up as a non-banking financial company conforming to and satisfying the conditions laid down by the Reserve Bank of India in the Infrastructure Debt Fund - Non-Banking Financial Companies (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2011 dated 21 November 2011, as amended by the Reserve Bank's notification of 14 May 2015. Sub-rule (2) requires the fund's moneys to be invested only in post commencement operation date infrastructure projects that have completed at least one year of satisfactory commercial operations, being either public private partnership projects that are party to a concession agreement with the concession authorities and the project authority providing for compulsory buyout and termination payment, or non-public private partnership projects and public private partnership projects without a project authority, in sectors where there is no project authority.

Who it reaches

infrastructure debt funds set up as non-banking financial companies
their sponsors and investors relying on the exemption in section 10(47)
borrowers whose projects are financed by such funds
assessing officers examining a fund's compliance with rule 2F

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.

Under the 1961 Act	Now
s.3	s.3
s.10	s.11, s.19
s.295	s.533

The instrument, as the Board published it

The department publishes this one only as a PDF, so the words below were read out of that PDF by machine. That reading can carry its own mistakes — a misread number, a broken line. Check the signed document before you rely on a figure in it.

[TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE GAZETTE OF INDIA. EXTRAORDINARY, PART II, SECTION 3, SUBSECTION (ii)]

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

MINISTRY OF FINANCE

DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE

[CENTRAL BOARD OF DIRECT TAXES]

(INCOME-TAX)

Notification

New Delhi, the 20th October, 2015

S.O. (E). In exercise of the powers conferred by section 295, read with clause (47) of section 10 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the Central Board of Direct Taxes hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Income-tax Rules, 1962, namely:-

1. (1) These rules may be called the Income-tax (17th Amendment) Rules, 2015.

(2) They shall come into force from the 14th day of May, 2015.

2. In the Income-tax Rules, 1962, in rule 2F, for sub-rules (1) and (2), the following sub-rules shall be substituted, namely:-

"(1) The Infrastructure Debt Fund shall be set up as a Non-Banking Financial Company conforming to and satisfying the conditions provided by the Reserve Bank of India in the Infrastructure Debt Fund - Non-Banking Financial Companies (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2011, vide notification No. DNBS.J33ICGM (US)-2011, dated the 21st November, 2011 as amended vide notification No. DNBR.OZW. CGM (CDS)-1015, dated the 14th May, 2015.

(2) The funds of the Infrastructure Debt Fund shall be invested only in Post Commencement Operation Date Infrastructure Projects which have completed at least one year of satisfactory commercial operations that are-

(i) Public Private Partnership Projects and a party to a concession agreement with the concession authorities and the project authority for ensuring compulsory buyout and termination payment;

(ii) Non-Public Private Partnership Projects and Public Private Partnership Projects without a project authority, in sectors where there is no project authority."

[Notification No. RH-__, 2015 F. 10.133143/2015-TPL]

R. LAKSHMI NARAYANAN
Under Secretary (Tax Policy and Legislation)

Note.- The principal rules were published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary, part III, section 3, sub-section (i), vide notification number S.O. 969(E), dated the 26th March, 1962 and were last amended vide notification number S.O.1189(E), dated the 19th October, 2015.

What it changes

The rule numbers are the 1962 Rules’ own, as the notification names them. The right-hand column is the department’s own mapping into the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything.

Rule of the 1962 Rules	Now, in the 2026 Rules
Rule 2F	rule 288

From when

14 May 2015, retrospectively.

What to watch

The rules come into force from 14 May 2015, retrospectively, that being the date of the Reserve Bank's amending notification to which the substituted sub-rule (1) refers.
The investment restriction has two limbs, and both require the project to have completed at least one year of satisfactory commercial operations after the commencement operation date.
A public private partnership project qualifies only if there is a concession agreement providing for compulsory buyout and termination payment; where there is no project authority the second limb applies instead.
The scan garbles the Reserve Bank notification numbers and the gazette number of this notification itself, so those references should be taken from the published copy.

Where you meet it

In an infrastructure debt fund's claim to exemption under section 10(47) in its return, and in any examination of whether its investments and its constitution satisfy rule 2F.

What it names

Rules it names. Rule 2F of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The 1962 Rules were replaced by the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything: a rule number quoted here almost never means the same rule today.

On the same provision

Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.

Notification No. 94/2026 [F. No. 370142/24/2026-TPL] / G.S.R. 646(E) : Income-tax (Second Amendment) Rules, 2026 : Amendment of rule 157 of the Income tax Rules, 2026 to align the definition of the specified fund with rule 114AAB of the Income tax Rules, 1962 — Ministry of Finance 21 July 2026
Notification No. 64 — [भाग II—खण् ड 3(i)] भारत का रािपत्र : असाधारण 7 16 April 2026
Notification No. 63/2026 [F. No. 370142/13/2026-TPL]/ GSR 268(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(i)] 10 April 2026
Notification No. 62/2026 [F. No. 370142/10/2026-TPL]/ GSR 267(E) — Ministry of Finance 10 April 2026
Notification No. 61/2026 [F. No. 370142/9/2026-TPL] / GSR 266(E) — [भाग II—खण् ड 3(i)] भारत का रािपत्र : असाधारण 3 10 April 2026
Notification No. 60/2026 [F. No. 370142/8/2026-TPL]/ GSR 265(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(i)] 10 April 2026

← Notification No. 85/2015 (F. No. 142/20/2015 –TPL)] / SO 2888(E) · Notification No. 83/2015 [F.No.142/25/2015-TPL] / SO 2860(E) →

What a notification is. A notification is made under a power the Act itself gives, and within that power it is law — unlike a circular, which only binds the department. Its reach is the reach of the enabling provision and no wider, and the date it carries decides from when it works.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.