The Foreign Exchange Management (Overseas Investment) Regulations, 2022 and rules thereunder (collectively referred to as “FEMA”) control transactions involving the acquisition and transfer of immovable properties outside of India by persons residing in India.
Without the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) general or special approval, no person residing in India may acquire or transfer any immovable property located outside of India, with the exception of the following circumstances.
Exception 1: A person resident in India may acquire immovable property outside India in the following cases
Exception 2: An Indian Entity (Defined below) having an overseas office may acquire immovable property outside India, for the business and residential purposes of its staff, provided total remittances do not exceed the following limits
Exceptions: The above rules shall not apply to a property held/acquired by a person resident in India in the following cases.
- The person is a national of a foreign State.
- Property acquired on or before 8th July 1947 and continued to be held by such person with the permission of the Reserve Bank.
- Property on a lease not exceeding 5 years.
Definitions
Resident Foreign Currency Account (RFC Account) means –
A resident of India is permitted to open, hold, and maintain a Resident Foreign Currency (RFC) Account, also known as a Foreign Currency Account, with an approved dealer in India.
(a) Received as a pension or any other superannuation or other monetary benefits from his employer outside India; or
(b) Realized on the conversion of the foreign currency, foreign security, or any immovable property situated outside India if such currency, security or property was acquired, held or owned by such person when he was resident outside India or inherited from a person who was resident outside India.
(c) Received or acquired as a gift or inheritance from a person referred to in the above point (b)
(d) Acquired or received before the 8th July 1947 or any income arising or accruing thereon which is held outside India by any person in pursuance of general or special permission granted by the Reserve Bank, or acquired as gift or inheritance therefrom; or
(e) Received as the proceeds of life insurance policy claims/ maturity/ surrender values settled in foreign currency from an insurance company in India permitted to undertake life insurance business by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.
Relative with reference to any person means anyone who is related to another if
- They are members of a Hindu Undivided Family; or
- They are husband and wife; or
- One person is related to the other, such relations are – Father, Mother (including step-mother), Son (including stepson), Son’s wife, Daughter (including step-daughter), Father’s father, Father’s mother, Mother’s mother, Mother’s father, Son’s son, Son’s son’s wife, Son’s daughter, Son’s daughter’s husband, Daughter’s husband, Daughter’s son, Daughter’s son’s wife, Daughter’s daughter, Daughter’s daughter’s husband, Brother (including step-brother), Brother’s wife, Sister (including step-sister), Sister’s husband.
Read More: Sale of House Property by NRI- Tax Implications & Fund Repatriation Checks
Indian Entity means
- A company defined under the Companies Act, 2013 or
- A body corporate incorporated by any law for the time being in force or
- A Limited Liability Partnership formed under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008 or
- A partnership firm registered under the Indian Partnership Act, of 1932.