Every Indian Company which has received fund (in the form of shares or loan i.e. ECB’s External Commercial Borrowing) from outside India or which invested funds out India is required to file their details of foreign assets or liability to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on annual basis in the prescribed form named as Foreign Liabilities and Assets (FLA) also known as FLA Return. Earlier the information was required to be sent to the RBI through email. However, recently RBI has come up with great amendment in the form of filing of FLA Return. To provide additional security to the said reporting, RBI has launched a new web portal to transform the email pattern of reporting to web based reporting. RBI is taking another step towards digitization and advance securitization of process of reporting to be made.
Before discussing what the new procedure is for FLA return is, let’s get the basic understanding about FLA Return.
Applicability and other basic Information
Q. Who is required to file FLA Return?
The following person who have received FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) or external commercial borrowing i.e. ECB’s and/ or made FDI abroad (Overseas Investment) in the previous year including the current year i.e. who holds foreign assets /liabilities in their balance sheet are required to file FLA return:
- A company registered under the Companies Act
- A LLP registered under LLP Act
- Other Entity such as Partnership Firms, SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds etc.
Q. What is the due date for filing FLA return
The due date for filing FLA return is 15th July every year. However, in case the accounts of the Companies or organization are not audited, then such organization is required to file FLA return on the basis of provisional accounts on or before 15th July and once the accounts are audited need to file final FLA Return on or before 30th September.
Q. What is the consequence of non-filing of FLA Return?
Non-filing of the return before due date will be treated as a violation of FEMA and penalty clause may be invoked for violation of FEMA.
However, the power to compound the contravention of non filing of FLA return also been delegated to all Regional Offices (except Kochi and Panaji) without any monetary limit.
Further, Kochi and Panaji Regional offices can compound the above contraventionsfor amount of contravention below Rupees One hundred lakh(Rs.1,00,00,000/-) only.
Q. Whether a Company can file FLA Return after due date?
Yes, a Company can file FLA Return after due date only after obtaining approval from RBI.
Q. How to take approval from RBI for filing of FLA Return after due date?
An email is to be sent to RBI on surveyfla@rbi.org.in for taking approval to file FLA return after the due date.
Q. Whether audited figures to be filed in FLA return?
In case accounts are not finalized before submission of FLA return, then a person can file Provisional FLA Return on the basis of unaudited accounts. Once the audit is complete, revised return can be filed by September end.
Q. How to file FLA return where the financial year end is other than March end?
The Return is not based on financial year i.e. not related to account closing period. Therefore, information to be provided only for reference period i.e. Previous March and Latest March, based on Company’s Internal Assessment.
Procedure for filing of FLA Return
- Register the entity at FLAIR (Foreign Liabilities and Assets Information Reporting) portal https://flair.rbi.org.in/fla/faces/pages/login.xhtml of RBI.
- Fill the User Registration Form.
- Mandatory attachment for registration is Verification Letter and Authority letter as per the format specified by the RBI.
- Submit the form.
- Login into the portal using the User ID and Password received over the email.
- Change the password for the first time.
- File FLA return with New password and for authenticity OTP will be mailed to the registered Email ID.
All about FLA return
FLA return is divided into 4 Parts
- Part-I- Basic details about the Company
- Part-II- Financial details about the Company
- Part-III-Details about Foreign Liabilities i.e. Investment made in India
- Part-IV- Details about Foreign Assets i.e. Investment made outside India
Once all the relevant section details are filled, validate the form and proceed for submission of same with RBI.
Details to be filled in Part-I
The following 20 Items to be filed in Part-I
- Year of filing
- Name of the Indian Company* (Already pre filled)
- PAN number* (Already pre filled)
- CIN number* (Already pre filled)
- Name of the Contact Person*
- Telephone No. (with extension)*
- Mobile Number*
- E-Mail ID (Head of the institution)*
- E-Mail of Contact person*
- Designation*
- Website (if any)
- Account Closing date*
- Nature of Business*
- Whether your company is merged/amalgamated during year
- Whether the company is listed?*
- Identification of the reporting company (in terms of inward FDI)*
- Type of company*
- Whether the Company is Asset Management Company?*
- Whether the Company has Technical Foreign collaboration?*
- Whether the company has any business activity during latest financial year?*
Details to be filled in Part-II
Financial details of the Company
- Total Paid up capital (No. of Shares)
*Equity Share Capital
* Participating Preference share capital
*Non participating Preference share capital
- Non Resident Holdings (No. of Shares)
- Out of the Total Capital, detail about the non- resident holding of
*Equity Share Capital
* Participating Preference share capital
*Non participating Preference share capital
- Profit and Loss Account (for last two financial years)
- Profit or Loss before Tax
- Profit or Loss after Tax
- Dividend Declared
- Tax on dividend
- Retained Profit
- Reserves and Surplus (for last two financial years)
- Reserves and Surplus
- Profit and Loss Balance
- Net worth of the Company: Though populated Automatically, the formula to calculate Networth is Total Equity & Participating Preference Share capital + Reserves and Surplus
- Sale and Purchase made during the year
- Domestic Sale
- Exports
- Domestic Purchase
- Import
- Reserves and Surplus
- Employee Information of reporting Indian Company
- Number of Employees on Payroll
Details to be filled in Part-III
- Investment in India under Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) scheme (10% or more Equity Participation)
- Investment in India under Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) scheme (Less than 10% Equity Holding)
- Portfolio Investment in India
- Other Investment (Outstanding liabilities with Foreign Unrelated Parties)
Details to be filled in Part-IV
- Equity Capital (PUC), Reserves & Surplus of Direct Investment Enterprise (DIE) Abroad (10% or more equity holding by Indian reporting company).
- Direct Investment Abroad (Less than 10% equity holding)
- Portfolio Investment in India
- Other Investment (Outstanding Claims with Foreign Unrelated Parties)
Conclusion
Hope the above article has helped the reader to understand the changes made in the process of filing of FLA Return, in case anyone need any further information or assistance, do mail us a@complianceship@gmail.com and contact @+91-8010233173.
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