Foreign Liabilities and Assets Annual Return is required to be filed by all Companies who have received Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) or received any overseas investments in every Previous Year(s) or the Current year.
Who is an Entity to File FLA Return?
Companies that either received or made ODI or FDI are required to file the FLA annually under FEMA, 1999. As well as the current year’s FLA, companies must report the assets and liabilities for the previous year(s). Companies with outstanding foreign assets or liabilities for the current year, but no foreign assets or liabilities from the previous year(s), must file an FLA annual return to show these outstanding assets or liabilities.
Due date of Filing of FLA Return
The companies are required to submit the foreign liabilities and assets annual return based on audited/unaudited account by July 15 of every year.
If the foreign liabilities and assets annual return is submitted on the basis of unaudited account by July 15, they are supposed to submit the revised foreign liabilities and assets annual return based on audited accounts by the end – of September i.e. 30th September.
Documents/Information required for Filing FLA Return
- Valid email id & mobile number
- Financial Statements (Audited/unaudited)
- Authority and Verification letter
- PAN card; Registration Certificate: MOA: AOA
- Previous year’s copy of FLA Return
Non Compliance or Penalty
The company that fails to file its FLA return within the given time will be responsible for paying a penalty of thrice the amount involved in the contravention. In the case of an unquantifiable penalty, the company will be required to pay Rs 2,00,000. Continuing the contravention will result in a penalty of Rs 5,000 per day.
RBI’s regional offices may compound infractions with no limit. The Kochi and Panaji Regional offices are excluded from this.
Companies not required to file FLA returns
FLA returns are not required by companies that have only issued shares on a non-repatriable basis to non-residents of India.
Those companies that do not have an outstanding balance of FDI or ODI by the end of the financial year are exempt from filing FLA returns.
FLA returns are not required for companies that received only share application money without having received any foreign direct investment or making any overseas direct investment.
