RBI makes online filing of FDI forms a must from February 8

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday asked banks to file forms related to foreign direct investment (FDI) only online on the e-Biz portal from February 8.

With a view to "promoting ease of reporting" of such transactions, RBI, under the e-Biz project of the government, has enabled online filing of three returns -- ARF, FCGPR and FC-TRS -- with RBI.

Advance Remittance Form (ARF) is used by companies to report FDI inflows to RBI while a company submits Foreign Collaboration General Permission Route(FCGPR) Form for reporting issue of eligible instruments to overseas investor against the FDI inflow. Foreign Collaboration Transfer of Shares (FC-TRS) Form relates to transfer of securities between a resident and a person outside India.

"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," the RBI said in a notification.

At present, both the options (online and physical) for filing of the forms are available to users.

While launching the FC-TRS module on e-Biz portal on August 24, 2015, banks were informed that the facility of physical filing will be discontinued in three months.

The decision to completely switch over to online filing of forms has been taken after assessing the readiness of banks to file these forms online, RBI said.