CA Kamal Garg
1. Reporting of FDI for fresh issuance of shares:
(i) Reporting of inflow:
(a) The actual inflows on account of such issuance of shares shall be reported by the AD branch in the R-returns in the normal course.
(b) An Indian company receiving investment from outside India for issuing shares / convertible debentures / preference shares under the FDI Scheme, should report the details of the amount of consideration to the Regional Office concerned of the Reserve Bank through it’s AD Category I bank, not later than 30 days from the date of receipt in the Advance Reporting Form. Noncompliance with the above provision would be reckoned as a contravention under FEMA, 1999 and could attract penal provisions.
(c) Indian companies are required to report the details of the receipt of the amount of consideration for issue of shares / convertible debentures, through an AD Category – I bank, together with a copy/ies of the FIRC/s evidencing the receipt of the remittance along with the KYC report on the nonresident investor from the overseas bank remitting the amount. The report would be acknowledged by the Regional Office concerned, which will allot a Unique Identification Number (UIN) for the amount reported.
(ii) Time frame within which shares have to be issued:
(a) The equity instruments should be issued within 180 days from the date of receipt of the inward remittance or by debit to the NRE/FCNR (B) /Escrow account of the nonresident investor.
(b) In case, the equity instruments are not issued within 180 days from the date of receipt of the inward remittance or date of debit to the NRE/FCNR (B) account, the amount of consideration so received should be refunded immediately to the non-resident investor by outward remittance through normal banking channels or by credit to the NRE/FCNR (B)/Escrow account, as the case may be.
(c) Non-compliance with the above provision would be reckoned as a contravention under FEMA and could attract penal provisions.
(d) In exceptional cases, refund / allotment of shares for the amount of consideration outstanding beyond a period of 180 days from the date of receipt may be considered by the Reserve Bank, on the merits of the case.
(iii) Reporting of issue of shares:
(a) After issue of shares (including bonus and shares issued on rights basis and shares issued on conversion of stock option under ESOP scheme)/ convertible debentures / convertible preference shares, the Indian company has to file Form FC-GPR, through it’s AD Category I bank, not later than 30 days from the date of issue of shares. Non-compliance with the above provision would be reckoned as a contravention under FEMA and could attract penal provisions.
(b) Form FC-GPR has to be duly filled up and signed by Managing Director/Director/Secretary of the Company and submitted to the Authorised Dealer of the company, who will forward it to the concerned Regional Office of the Reserve Bank. The following documents have to be submitted along with Form FC-GPR:
(i) A certificate from the Company Secretary of the company certifying that:
a) all the requirements of the Companies Act, 1956 have been complied with;
b) terms and conditions of the Government’s approval, if any, have been complied with;
c) the company is eligible to issue shares under these Regulations; and
d) the company has all original certificates issued by AD banks in India evidencing receipt of amount of consideration.
(ii) A certificate from SEBI registered Merchant Banker or Chartered Accountant indicating the manner of arriving at the price of the shares issued to the persons resident outside India.
(c) The report of receipt of consideration as well as Form FC-GPR have to be submitted by the AD bank to the Regional Office concerned of the Reserve Bank under whose jurisdiction the registered office of the company is situated.
(d) Issue of bonus/rights shares or shares on conversion of stock options issued under ESOP to persons resident outside India directly or on amalgamation / merger with an existing Indian company, as well as issue of shares on conversion of ECB / royalty / lumpsum technical know-how fee / import of capital goods by units in SEZs has to be reported in Form FC-GPR.
2. Reporting of FDI for Transfer of shares route:
(i) The actual inflows and outflows on account of such transfer of shares shall be reported by the AD branch in the R-returns in the normal course.
(ii) Reporting of transfer of shares between residents and non-residents and vice- versa is to be made in Form FC-TRS. The Form FC-TRS should be submitted to the AD Category – I bank, within 60 days from the date of receipt of the amount of consideration. The onus of submission of the Form FC-TRS within the given timeframe would be on the transferor / transferee, resident in India.
(iii) The sale consideration in respect of equity instruments purchased by a person resident outside India, remitted into India through normal banking channels, shall be subjected to a KYC check by the remittance receiving AD Category – I bank at the time of receipt of funds. In case, the remittance receiving AD Category – I bank is different from the AD Category – I bank handling the transfer transaction, the KYC check should be carried out by the remittance receiving bank and the KYC report be submitted by the customer to the AD Category – I bank carrying out the transaction along with the Form FC-TRS.
(iv) The AD bank should scrutinise the transactions and on being satisfied about the transactions should certify the form FC-TRS as being in order.
(v) The AD bank branch should submit two copies of the Form FC-TRS received from their constituents/customers together with the statement of inflows/outflows on account of remittances received/made in connection with transfer of shares, by way of sale, to IBD/FED/or the nodal office designated for the purpose by the bank in the enclosed proforma (which is to be prepared in MS-Excel format). The IBD/FED or the nodal office of the bank will consolidate reporting in respect of all the transactions reported by their branches into two statements inflow and outflow statement. These statements (inflow and outflow) should be forwarded on a monthly basis to Foreign Exchange Department, Reserve Bank, Foreign Investment Division, Central Office, Mumbai in soft copy (in MS- Excel) by e-mail to fdidata@rbi.org.in. The bank should maintain the FCTRS forms with it and should not forward the same to the Reserve Bank of India.
(vi) The transferee/his duly appointed agent should approach the investee company to record the transfer in their books along with the certificate in the Form FC-TRS from the AD branch that the remittances have been received by the transferor/payment has been made by the transferee. On receipt of the certificate from the AD, the company may record the transfer in its books.
(vi) On receipt of statements from the AD bank , the Reserve Bank may call for such additional details or give such directions as required from the transferor/transferee or their agents, if need be.
3. Reporting of conversion of ECB into equity:
Details of issue of shares against conversion of ECB has to be reported to the Regional Office concerned of the Reserve Bank, as indicated below:
a. In case of full conversion of ECB into equity, the company shall report the conversion in Form FC-GPR to the Regional Office concerned of the Reserve Bank as well as in Form ECB-2 to the Department of Statistics and Information Management (DSIM), Reserve Bank of India, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mumbai – 400 051, within seven working days from the close of month to which it relates. The words “ECB wholly converted to equity” shall be clearly indicated on top of the Form ECB-2. Once reported, filing of Form ECB-2 in the subsequent months is not necessary.
b. In case of partial conversion of ECB, the company shall report the converted portion in Form FC-GPR to the Regional Office concerned as well as in Form ECB-2 clearly differentiating the converted portion from the non-converted portion. The words “ECB partially converted to equity” shall be indicated on top of the Form ECB-2. In the subsequent months, the outstanding balance of ECB shall be reported in Form ECB-2 to DSIM.
c. The SEZ unit issuing equity as mentioned in para (iii) above, should report the particulars of the shares issued in the Form FC-GPR.
(Compiled by CA Kamal Garg, a Fellow Member of ICAI. He is engaged in IFRS – Audit and Advisory, FEMA, Valuation and XBRL Services. He can be approached at cakamalgarg@gmail.com, 9811054015)
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