Export and Import of Currency Regulations

RBI has vide its notification dated 4th February, 2016 updated the Foreign Exchange Management (Export and Import of Currency) Regulations, 2015. Accordingly, the gist of the regulations provides that

A. Export and import of Indian currency and currency notes

a) Any person resident in India,

1. may take outside India (other than to Nepal and Bhutan) currency notes of Government of India and Reserve Bank of India notes up to an amount not exceeding Rs.25,000 (Rupees Twenty Five Thousand only) per person.
2. may take or send outside India (other than to Nepal and Bhutan) commemorative coins not exceeding two coins each.

Explanation:

'Commemorative Coin' includes coin issued by Government of India Mint to commemorate any specific occasion or event and expressed in Indian currency.

3. who had gone out of India on a temporary visit, may bring into India at the time of his return from any place outside India (other than from Nepal and Bhutan), currency notes of Government of India and Reserve Bank of India notes up to an amount not exceeding Rs.25,000 (Rupees Twenty Five Thousand only) per person.

b) Any person resident outside India, not being a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh, and visiting India,

1. may take outside India currency notes of Government of India and Reserve Bank of India notes up to an amount not exceeding Rs.25,000 (Rupees Twenty Five Thousand only) per person
2. may bring into India currency notes of Government of India and Reserve Bank of India notes up to an amount not exceeding Rs.25,000 (Rupees Twenty Five Thousand only) per person

B. Import of Foreign Exchange into India

A person,

1. may send into India without limit foreign exchange in any form other than currency notes, bank notes and travelers cheques;
2. may bring into India from any place outside India without limit foreign exchange (other than unissued notes) subject to the condition that such person makes, on arrival in India, a declaration to the Customs authorities in Currency Declaration Form (CDF). It shall not be necessary to make such declaration where the aggregate value of the foreign exchange in the form of currency notes, bank notes or travelers cheques brought in by such person at any one time does not exceed US$10,000 (US Dollars ten thousand) or its equivalent and/ or the aggregate value of foreign currency notes brought in by such person at any one time does not exceed US$ 5,000 (US Dollars five thousand) or its equivalent.

C. Export of Foreign Exchange and Currency Notes

1. An authorised person may send out of India foreign currency acquired in normal course of business,
2. any person may take or send out of India, -
1. Cheques drawn on foreign currency account maintained in accordance with Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a person resident in India) Regulations, 2000;
2. foreign exchange obtained by him by drawal from an authorised person in accordance with the provisions of the Act or the rules or regulations or directions made or issued thereunder;
3. currency in the safes of vessels or aircrafts which has been brought into India or which has been taken on board a vessel or aircraft with the permission of the Reserve Bank;
3. any person may take out of India, -
1. foreign exchange possessed by him in accordance with the Foreign Exchange Management (Possession and Retention of Foreign Currency) Regulations, 2000 ;
2. unspent foreign exchange brought back by him to India while returning from travel abroad and retained in accordance with the Foreign Exchange Management (Possession and Retention of Foreign Currency) Regulations, 2000 ;
4. any person resident outside India may take out of India unspent foreign exchange not exceeding the amount brought in by him and declared in Currency Declaration Form (CDF).

D. Export and Import of currency to or from Nepal and Bhutan

A person may-

1. take or send out of India to Nepal or Bhutan, currency notes of Government of India and Reserve Bank of India notes (other than notes of denominations of above Rs.100 in either case) provided that an individual travelling from India to Nepal or Bhutan can carry Reserve Bank of India currency notes of denomination Rs.500/- and/or Rs.1000/- up to a limit of Rs.25,000/- ;
2. bring into India from Nepal or Bhutan, currency notes of Government of India and Reserve Bank of India notes (other than notes of denominations of above Rs.100 in either case) ;
3. take out of India to Nepal or Bhutan, or bring into India from Nepal or Bhutan, currency notes being the currency of Nepal or Bhutan.

E. Prohibition on Export of Indian Coins

No person shall take or send out of India the Indian coins which are covered by the Antique and Art Treasure Act, 1972.

RTGS charges for customers - revision

RBI has vide its notification dated 4th february, 2016 revised the RTGS charges for bank members and customers alike. The variation in charges for customers which will come into effect from 1st
april, 2016 is as follows:

1) Processing charges per transaction: - There will be a flat processing charge of Rs.0.50 per outward transaction and a time varying charge as follows:

Between 8 to 11 hours - NIL
From 11 hours to 13 hours - Rs.2 per transaction
From 13 hours to 1630 hours - Rs.5 per transaction
After 1630 hours - Rs. 10 per transaction

The time is reckoned as settlement at RBI. All charges are out outward transactions, NONE for inward transaction. All rates mentioned above are exclusive of service tax.

2) The maximum anount that the member can recover from its customer (if it so desires) will remain unchanged as under:

For inward transactions NIL
For outward transactions
Amount between Rs.2 lakhs to Rs.5 lakhs - Rs.25 plus applicable time varying charge, subject to maximum of Rs.30/-
Amount above Rs.5 lakhs - Rs.50 plus applicable time varying charge, subject to maximum of Rs.55/-

The RBI notification is available here i.e. https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=10260&Mode=0

Safe deposit locker facility from NBFCs

RBI has vide its notification dated 28th January, 2016 clarified that safe deposit locker facilities being offered by certain NBFCs is a fee based service and shall not be reckoned as part of the financial business provided by NBFCs and further that this facility is not being regulated by RBI. NBFCs have to disclose to their customers that this activity is not regulated by RBI. 

Acquisition & transfer of immoveable property outside India

RBI has vide its notification dated 21st January, 2016 upgraded the FEM (Acqusition and transfer of immoveable property outside India) REgulations 2015. 

As per these regulations:

3. Restriction on acquisition or transfer of immovable property outside India:-

Save as otherwise provided in the Act or in these regulations, no person resident in India shall acquire or transfer any immovable property situated outside India without general or special permission of the Reserve Bank.

4. Exemptions:-

Nothing contained in these regulations shall apply to the property -

1. held by a person resident in India who is a national of a foreign state;
2. acquired by a person resident in India on or before 8th July 1947 and continued to be held by him with the permission of the Reserve Bank.

5. Acquisition and Transfer of Immovable Property outside India:-

(1) A person resident in India may acquire immovable property outside India, -

(a) by way of gift or inheritance from a person referred to in sub-section (4) of Section 6 of the Act, or referred to in clause (b) of regulation 4;

(b) by way of purchase out of foreign exchange held in Resident Foreign Currency (RFC) account maintained in accordance with the Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency accounts by a person resident in India) Regulations, 2015;

(c) jointly with a relative who is a person resident outside India, provided there is no outflow of funds from India;

(2) A person resident in India may acquire immovable property outside India, by way of inheritance or gift from a person resident in India who has acquired such property in accordance with the foreign exchange provisions in force at the time of such acquisition.

(3) A company incorporated in India having overseas offices, may acquire immovable property outside India for its business and for residential purposes of its staff, in accordance with the direction issued by the Reserve Bank of India from time to time.

Explanation:

For the purposes of these regulations, 'relative' in relation to an individual means husband, wife, brother or sister or any lineal ascendant or descendant of that individual.

Possession and Retention of Foreign Currency

RBI has vide its notification dated 4/2/2016 updated the Foreign Exhange Management (Possession and Retention of Foreign Currency) Regulations 2015 whereby limits for possession and retention of foreign currency in the form of notes, coins & travellers cheques have been laid down. 

A. Following are the limits for possession or retention of foreign currency or foreign coins, namely :-

1. possession without limit of foreign currency and coins by an authorised person within the scope of his authority ;
2. possession without limit of foreign coins by any person;
3. retention by a person resident in India of foreign currency notes, bank notes and foreign currency travellers' cheques not exceeding US$ 2000 or its equivalent in aggregate, provided that such foreign exchange in the form of currency notes, bank notes and travellers cheques;

1. was acquired by him while on a visit to any place outside India by way of payment for services not arising from any business in or anything done in India; or
2. was acquired by him, from any person not resident in India and who is on a visit to India, as honorarium or gift or for services rendered or in settlement of any lawful obligation; or
3. was acquired by him by way of honorarium or gift while on a visit to any place outside India; or
4. represents unspent amount of foreign exchange acquired by him from an authorised person for travel abroad.

B. A person resident in India but not permanently resident therein may possess without limit foreign currency in the form of currency notes, bank notes and travellers cheques, if such foreign currency was acquired, held or owned by him when he was resident outside India and, has been brought into India in accordance with the regulations made under the Act.

Explanation: for the purpose of this clause, 'not permanently resident' means a person resident in India for employment of a specified duration (irrespective of length thereof) or for a specific job or assignment, the duration of which does not exceed three years.

The notification has come into force from December, 29, 2015. 

Online filing of FDI forms

RBI has vide its notification dated 1st February 2016 mandated that all forms for Foreign Direct Investment reporting i.e. Advance Remittance Form (ARF), FC-GPR and FC-TRS should be mandatorily filed with the online e-biz platform of RBI. Physical forms have been discontinued with effect from 8th February, 2016.

The relevant extracts of RBI notification is given below:

2. With a view to promoting the ease of reporting of transactions related to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the Reserve Bank of India, under the aegis of the e-Biz project of the Government of India has enabled online filing of the following returns with the Reserve Bank of India viz.

- Advance Remittance Form (ARF) which is used by the companies to report the FDI inflows to RBI;

- FCGPR Form which a company submits to RBI for reporting the issue of eligible instruments to the overseas investor against the above mentioned FDI inflow; and

- FCTRS Form which is submitted to RBI for transfer of securities between resident and person outside India.

3. At present both the options, i.e. online filing and physical filing of abovementioned forms, are available to the users.

4. Based on the experience it has been decided that beginning February 8, 2016 the physical filing of forms ARF, FCGPR and FC-TRS will be discontinued and forms submitted in online mode only through e-Biz portal will be accepted.

TRAI disallows discriminatory tarriffs for data

TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA (TRAI) issued the ‘Prohibition of Discriminatory Tariffs for Data Services Regulations, 2016’ today. This would disallow service providers to offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content being accessed by a consumer. 

TRAI had earlier issued a Consultation Paper on ‘Differential Pricing for Data Services’ in December, 2015. This Consultation primarily sought the views of the stakeholders on whether the service providers should be allowed to charge differential tariffs based on the websites/applications/platforms being accessed on the internet. Based on the responses received and the internal deliberations, the Authority has now issued these Regulations. These Regulations, are aimed at ensuring that consumers get an unhindered and non-discriminatory access to the internet. These Regulations intend to make data tariffs for access to the internet non discriminatory on the basis of the content. 

An overwhelming number of detailed and well reasoned responses, representing a diverse set of views were received in the consultation process. There were views suggesting both in support and against ex ante steps for regulating differential tariff for data services based on content. After careful examination of all the comments and feedback, the Authority has decided that ex ante regulation, rather than a case by case tariff intervention regime would be more appropriate as it would give the much needed certainty to industry participants. Such a step is also warranted in view of the high costs of regulation in terms of time and resources that will be required for investigating each case of tariff discrimination. 

The Authority has therefore mandated the following: 

a) No service provider shall offer or charge discriminatory tariffs for data services on the basis of content. 

b) No service provider shall enter into any arrangement, agreement or contract, by whatever name called, with any person, natural or legal, that has the effect of discriminatory tariffs for data services being offered or charged by the service provider for the purpose of evading the prohibition in this regulation. 

c) Reduced tariff for accessing or providing emergency services at times of public emergency has been permitted. 

d) Financial disincentives for contravention of the regulation have also been specified. 

TRAI had issued the Consultation Paper on ‘Differential Pricing for Data Services’ on 9th December, 2015. Opportunity for submitting written comments and counter comments was given to the stakeholders till 7th January, 2016 and 14th January, 2016 respectively. An Open House Discussion was held on 21st January, 2016 and further time to submit additional comments was given up to 25th January, 2016. 

TRAI will keep a close watch on the implementation of the mandate by the service providers and may undertake a review after two years or at an earlier date as it may deem fit.