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The Reserve Bank of India (“RBI”) in its circular[1] dated November 13, 2020, notified, that subsequent to the reviewal of the existing forms and reports prescribed under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (“FEMA”), it has decided for the discontinuation of 17 (seventeen) reports and returns that were earlier mandated to be filed by the concerned entities. This is in pursuance to improve the ease of doing business and reducing the cost of compliance on the part of entities, as stated in the circular.
The circular further, provides that the Authorized Dealer (“AD”) Banks may bring the contents of the circular to the notice of their constituents. Furthermore, the Master Direction – Reporting under FEMA dated January 1, 2016, shall accordingly be updated to reflect the changes as mentioned in the circular.
List of the reports discontinued by the RBI is mentioned below:
Whilst, some of these reports were to be reported to the AD Category I/II Banks, others were to be reported to custodian banks, FFMCs or Asset Management Companies. Moreover, the frequency of filings these reports varied from daily, fortnightly, quarterly, monthly or on an extension basis.
The circular also mentions that it is only the hardcopy filing of Form DRR that has been discontinued. The domestic custodian may continue to report the same on an application in terms of Regulation 4(5) of FEM (Mode of Payment and Reporting of Non-Debt Instruments) Regulations, 2019.
With technology known as the major driver of efficiency enhancement, this program is expected to decrease the substantial load on corporate paperwork and compliance by making the existing procedures more simple and reducing the need for unnecessary reporting.
[1] RBI/2020-21/66 A.P. (DIR Series) Circular No. 05