Fundraised from Foreign Investors? Ensure You Don’t miss this Filing with RBI!

Which companies are eligible to file the Form FLA?

Every Indian company and Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) which have received Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and/or made Overseas Direct Investments (ODI) in the previous year(s), including the current year are required to file Annual Return on Foreign Liabilities and Assets (“Form FLA”) with RBI on or before July 15th every year.

The Form FLA has to be also filed in a case where a company/LLP has not received any fresh FDI and/or ODI in the current year but has outstanding FDI and/or ODI from previous years.

In case where the company/LLPs financial statements are unaudited before the due date of submission of Form FLA, the return is required to be submitted on the basis of such unaudited (provisional) financial statements. Once the accounts get audited and there are revisions from the provisional information submitted, the company/LLP’s will be required to submit a revised return by September 30th.

The following companies are excluded from submitting FLA return:

1. Where Indian company/LLP does not have any outstanding investment in respect of inward and outward FDI as on the end of March of the reporting year, the company/LLP is not required to submit the Form FLA.

2. If a company/LLP has received only share application money and does not have any foreign direct investment or overseas direct investment outstanding as on the end of March of the reporting year, the company/LLP is not required to submit the Form FLA.

3. If all non-resident shareholders of a company/LLP has transferred their shares to the residents during the reporting period and the company/LLP does not have any outstanding investment in respect of inward and outward FDI as on the end of March of reporting year, the company/LLP is not required to submit the Form FLA.

4. If shares are issued by reporting company to non-resident on Non-Repatriable basis, then it should not be considered as a foreign investment; therefore, companies which have issued the shares to non-resident only on Non-Repatriable basis, are not required to submit the Form FLA.

How does one submit the Form FLA?

The format of Form FLA can be found here. The filled form along with any attachment has to be mailed to fla@rbi.org.in by the due date. The email has to be sent from the official email id of any authorized person in the company/LLP, such as CFO, Director, Company Secretary, etc.  Acknowledgment will be received from RBI on the same email id from which the form is sent.