ANNUAL RETURN ON FOREIGN LIABILITIES AND ASSETS (FLA), 2022
Annual return on Foreign Liabilities and Assets (FLA) was notified under FEMA 1999 and it is required to be submitted by all the India resident companies which have received FDI and/ or made overseas investment in any of the previous year(s), including current year by July 15 every year.
Non-filing of the return before due date will be treated as a violation of FEMA and penalty clause may be invoked for violation of FEMA.
The annual return on Foreign Liabilities and Assets (FLA) is required to be submitted by the following entities which have received FDI (foreign direct investment) and/or made FDI abroad (i.e. overseas investment) in the previous year(s) including the current year i.e. who holds foreign assets or/and liabilities in their balance sheets;
- A Company within the meaning of section 1(4) of the Companies Act, 2013.
- A Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) registered under the Limited Liability Partnership Act, 2008
- Others [include SEBI registered Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), Partnership Firms, Public Private Partnerships (PPP) etc.]
Note: Shares issued by reporting company to non-resident on Non-Repatriable basis should not be considered as foreign investment; therefore, companies which have issued the shares to non-resident only on Non-Repatriable basis, is not required to submit the FLA Return.
1. FORMAT OF REPORTING:
The format and email-based reporting system has been replaced by the web-based format for submission of Annual Reporting of Foreign Liabilities and Assets (FLA) return w.e.f. June 28, 2019 and the same has now moved to FLAIR web-portal available on RBI website.
If the company’s accounts are not audited before the due date of submission, i.e. July 15, then the FLA Return should be submitted based on unaudited (provisional) account. Once the accounts gets audited and there are revisions from the provisional information submitted by the company, they are supposed to submit the revised FLA return based on audited accounts by end – September
2. FLA FILING PROCEDURE
The User is advised to read the User Manual and the FAQs available on FLAIRE WEBSITE before filling the FLA return.
Entities which are filing FLA return for the first time/ with revised UIN (Unique identification number) are required to register themselves first for generating login credentials and they can file FLA return. However, the entities which have already registered earlier may submit FLA-2021 using their login credentials.
Form ENTITIES/ COMPANY filing FLA for the first time, Entity Registration and User Registration is required to be done in the manner stated hereineblow:-
3. ENTITY REGISTRATION FOR FILING FLA
- The entity / Company has to register on the portal by clicking Registration for New Entity Users as available on Flaire Portal.
- The entity has to fill the details in the FLA user registration form, upload the documents mentioned (Verification Letter and Authority Letter) and click submit to complete the registration.
- After successful registration, user id and default password will be sent to the authorized person’s mail id. Using this user id and password, entities can login to the FLAIR portal and file the FLA Return.
4. USER REGISTRATION FOR FILING FLA
The User Registration requires following two uploads:-
- Verification letter: The soft copy of the verification letter (doc) is available on FLAIR portal; Companies/LLPs/Others are required to download the same and fill the required details and convert the same to PDF format. Thereafter .pdf file should be attached in User Registration Form by clicking ‘UPLOAD Verification Letter’ option.
- Authority letter: The soft copy of the authority letter (doc) is available on FLAIR portal; companies/LLPs/Others are required to download the same and fill the required details and this authority letter has to be signed by concern authority and then after scanning the same; convert it to PDF format and thereafter .pdf file should be attached in User Registration Form by clicking ‘UPLOAD Authority Letter’ option
The CIN of reporting company and PAN of the authorized person in verification letter must not contain any special characters or/and spaces (space in the beginning/end if remained, may not be accepted).
Authorised Person: The person who is authorized by the entity to fill and manage FLA Returns is called an Authorized person. The Entity needs to furnish the details of its authorized person in the authority letter available on the FLAIR portal.
Default password and OTP (every time, whenever the company logs-in to the FLAIR portal) is sent to the email of the authorized person furnished during registration.
Procedure for change the details of Authorised Person:
Entity needs to send a request mail to RBI (surveyfla@rbi.org.in) for deactivating the user, mentioning the Company Name, User Name and Company CIN/LLPIN/UIN in the mail. FLA support will take necessary action regarding this. Once the account is deactivated, you can re-register as a new user.
Procedure to follow in case of loss of username / password:
In case the Entity has forgotten / lost its username and password, the company should raise their query by sending an email to RBI (surveyfla@rbi.org.in) mentioning the Company Name and Company CIN/LLPIN/UIN in that mail. FLA support will provide the company with their username and authorized person’s email id which was used at the time of registration. They can reset the password thereafter.
Circumstances under which the Entities should raise deactivation request:
- Change in authorized person’s details.
- Change in company CIN/LLPIN/UIN during the latest financial year.
- Change in entity name/address
Once the account is deactivated, once can re-register as a new user.
Investment Vehicles/AIFs,
An AIF needs to register on the FLAIR portal. AIF should use the Registration Number given by SEBI at the time of registration as the UIN for registering on the FLAIR portal. Since there is no provision for online filing of FLA return for AIF in the prescribed format, they need to send a mail to survayfla@rbi.org.in requesting for the form for filing of FLA Return for AIF after completing registration process on the portal. Thereafter FLA Team will send the excel form for filling FLA Return by AIF via mail to them. They need to fill the excel form and send us the same on surveyfla@rbi.org.in. Email based acknowledgement form will be sent to them by FLA Team on receiving the filled-in FLA form
III. REVISION OF CURRENT YEAR FLA RETURN:
The reporting entity need to take approval from RBI in case of revision of duly submitted current year FLA return.
Visit https://flair.rbi.org.in/fla -> Login to FLAIR -> Click “Please click here to get the approval to fill revised FLA form for current year” -> select “Year” -> Click “Request”.
After sending request to RBI through FLA portal, entities need to wait for at least one working day for approval. Entities can check the status of their request in “Multiple Year Enable Screen” under menu on the left corner. Once approved by RBI, the entity can revise FLA return for current year.
RBI allows for revision in the current year. It also allows for submission of FLA returns of the previous year(s). For this, the reporting company needs to make request to RBI to enable the same in the portal. The portal has a provision to make such a request.
LAST DATE: The last date for submission of FLA Return – 2022 is July 15, 2022.
DISCLAIMER: This Article is designed to provide information of a general nature and is not intended as a substitute for professional consultation and advice in a particular matter. The opinions and interpretations expressed within are those of the author only and may not reflect those of other identified parties. The results & interpretation have been done on the basis of relevant provisions and as per the information existing at the time of the preparation of this Article. The Author explicitly disclaim any financial or other liability of any kind arising on account of any action taken pursuant to the results or interpretation of this Article and accepts no responsibility whatsoever and will not be liable for any losses, claims or damages which may arise because of the contents of this write up.
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