FAQs — NRIs investments in India

NRI FAQs — 1

Can NRIs and PIOs open an account with Indian banks?

Yes, NRIs can main­tain both Rupee and for­eign cur­rency accounts in India. RBI has autho­rised cer­tain banks for For­eign Cur­rency accounts for the NRIs.

NRI FAQs — 2

Is there a limit to the num­ber of invest­ments for acquir­ing com­mer­cial prop­er­ties in India?

No, there is no limit to the invest­ments that NRIs can make in immov­able com­mer­cial prop­er­ties in India.

NRI FAQs — 3

What are the invest­ment options for NRIs in India?

NRIs can invest in India as under:
• Invest­ment under Auto­matic Route with repa­tri­a­tion ben­e­fits
• Invest­ment with Gov­ern­ment approval
• Other invest­ments with repa­tri­a­tion ben­e­fits
• Invest­ments up to 100% equity with­out repa­tri­a­tion ben­e­fits
• Other invest­ments by NRIs/OCBs with­out repa­tri­a­tion benefits.

NRI FAQs — 4

Can NRIs invest in shares, deben­tures and units of mutual funds in India?

Yes, NRIs can invest in gov­ern­ment and UTI bonds, deben­tures, shares and secu­ri­ties as per the rules laid down by FEMA (For­eign Exchange Man­age­ment Act)

NRI FAQs — 5

Can NRIs and PIOs acquire any immov­able prop­erty in India by the way of inheritance?

Yes, for­eign cit­i­zens of Indian ori­gin can acquire immov­able prop­erty (IP) in India by the way of inher­i­tance. How­ever, cit­i­zens of Pak­istan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, China, Iran, Nepal and Bhutan (whether res­i­dent in India or not) are pro­hib­ited from acquir­ing or trans­fer­ring any IP in India with­out prior approval of the RBI.

NRI FAQs — 6

Where can an NRI/PIO open a demat account? Does an NRI need to seek per­mis­sion from the RBI for the same?

NRI/PIO can open a demat account with any Depos­i­tory Par­tic­i­pant [DP] of NSDL. The NRI/PIO needs to men­tion the type [’NRI’ as com­pared to ‘Res­i­dent’] and the sub-type [’Repa­tri­able’ or ‘Non-Repatriable’] in the account open­ing form col­lected from the DP. No per­mis­sion is required from RBI to open a demat account. How­ever, cred­its and deb­its from demat account may require gen­eral or spe­cific per­mis­sions as the case may be, from des­ig­nated autho­rised dealers.

NRI FAQs — 7

If NRI/PIO desires to make invest­ments under dif­fer­ent schemes, can he hold all such secu­ri­ties in a sin­gle demat account?

No. Secu­ri­ties received against invest­ments under ‘For­eign Direct Invest­ment scheme (FDI)’, ‘Port­fo­lio Invest­ment scheme (PIS)’ and ‘Scheme for Invest­ment’ on non — repa­tri­a­tion basis have to be cred­ited into sep­a­rate demat accounts. Invest­ment under PIS could be on repa­tri­a­tion or non – repa­tri­a­tion basis. Invest­ment under FDI scheme is on repa­tri­a­tion basis.

NRI FAQs — 8

Can NRIs avail loans against their bank accounts in India? If yes, then for what purposes?

There are cer­tain banks autho­rised by the Reserve Bank of India that are per­mit­ted to grant loans to NRIs hold­ing NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts in India against their secu­rity of term deposits.
NRIs can avail loans for the acqui­si­tion of flat/house in India against NRE or FCNR fixed deposits on repa­tri­able basis, pro­vided the amount to be repa­tri­ated is gov­erned by For­eign Exchange Man­age­ment Reg­u­la­tion (Acqui­si­tion and Trans­fer of Immov­able Prop­erty in India).

NRI FAQs — 9

Do NRIs require the prior approval of RBI for main­tain­ing bank accounts in India?

NRIs can open and main­tain bank accounts in India with­out the prior per­mis­sion RBI.

NRI FAQs — 10

Are OCBs allowed to make invest­ments under the Port­fo­lio Invest­ment Scheme for NRIs?

RBI has banned OCBs (Over­seas Cor­po­rate Bod­ies) from invest­ing under the Port­fo­lio Scheme that is solely for the ben­e­fit of NRIs. In fact, the cat­e­gory of OCB has been abol­ished on a whole and they can’;t invest in India in any man­ner. How­ever, OCBs can con­tinue to sell and hold shares pur­chased before 29th Novem­ber 2001.

Source — http://india.gov.in/overseas

Related posts:

1. NRI Invest­ment Options in India
2. NRI Bank Account
3. NRI Home loans — Are NRIs eli­gi­ble for home loans?
4. Open a demat account
5. Open­ing a NRI bank account