The Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), 1999 governs and regulates financial transactions between the domestic and foreign country. The notification numbered 263 as on August 05, 2013 stipulated the criteria i.e. Indians could set up Joint Ventures (JV) and Wholly owned subsidiaries (WOS) abroad (outside India) for bonafide business activities within the limit of USD 125,000 subject to the terms and conditions mentioned in FEMA. As per the Schedule V of the notification, any Indian resident as being the citizen of the country can make overseas direct investment in the Equity shares and convertible preference shares of a joint venture or wholly owned subsidiary outside India. Hence, Indian residents can remit money outside India under the Liberalized remittance Scheme LRS for setting up a joint venture or a wholly owned subsidiary. The RBI has permitted purchase of immovable property outside India under the same scheme. The monetary limit of the same is 125000 dollars per financial year.
The second way of setting up a business abroad is through overseas direct Investment. RBI provides the definition of direct investment as Investments, either under the Automatic route or the Approval Route, by way of contribution to the capital or subscription to the memorandum of foreign entity or by way of purchase of existing shares of a foreign entity either by market purchase or private placement or through stock exchange, signifying a long term interest in the foreign entity (JV or WOS) Direct investment hence means either to subscribe to capital of a new company set-up outside India
We help our clients in setting up or investing capital abroad through the two routes above and enable easy approvals through our wide range of networks.