02 December 2010
An Indian company may receive Foreign Direct Investment under the two routes as given under :
i. Automatic Route
FDI up to 100 per cent is allowed under the automatic route in all activities/sectors except where the provisions of the consolidated FDI Policy, paragraph on 'Entry Routes for Investment' issued by the Government of India from time to time, are attracted.
FDI in sectors /activities to the extent permitted under the automatic route does not require any prior approval either of the Government or the Reserve Bank of India.
ii. Government Route
FDI in activities not covered under the automatic route requires prior approval of the Government which are considered by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. Application can be made in Form FC-IL, which can be downloaded from http://www.dipp.gov.in. Plain paper applications carrying all relevant details are also accepted. No fee is payable.
Indian companies having foreign investment approval through FIPB route do not require any further clearance from the Reserve Bank of India for receiving inward remittance and for the issue of shares to the non-resident investors.
The Indian company having received FDI either under the Automatic route or the Government route is required to report in the Advance Reporting Form, the details of the receipt of the amount of consideration for issue of equity instrument viz. shares / fully and mandatorily convertible debentures / fully and mandatorily convertible preference shares through an AD Category –I Bank, together with copy/ ies of the FIRC evidencing the receipt of inward remittances along with the Know Your Customer (KYC) report on the non-resident investors from the overseas bank remitting the amount, to the Regional Office concerned of the Reserve Bank of India within 30 days from the date of receipt of inward remittances.
Further, the Indian company is required to issue the equity instrument within 180 days, from the date of receipt of inward remittance or debit to NRE/FCNR (B) account in case of NRI/ PIO.
After issue of shares / fully and mandatorily convertible debentures / fully and mandatorily convertible preference shares, the Indian company has to file the required documents along with Form FC-GPR with the Regional Office concerned of the Reserve Bank of India within 30 days of issue of shares to the non-resident investors.