Annual Return on Financial Liability & Asset (FLA)

With many Indian company attracting foreign investors in the form of cheap, easy-to-access, and affordable investments, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has become commonplace in the Indian economy. Similarly, Overseas Direct Investment (ODI) which means that Indian companies investing outside of India have also increased in value several times (although they are still small in value compared to FDI). To oversee this purchase the RBI has come up with several compliances, one of which is FLA. This article discusses the Financial Liability & Asset (FLA) annual return.

Financial Liabilities and Assets

The FLA is an annual return set out under FEMA rules and applies to all companies firms that have received FDI during the year or have done ODI during the year and these funds have not yet reached the end of the year. This means that the FDI/ODI should always be on the organization’s books and should not be reduced to a square one during the year.

The deadline is 15 July (Extended to 31 July 2020 this year). If the corporate books are not yet audited, provisional statistics should be uploaded by the deadline. In the event of a change after the inclusion of interim figures the company will file an FLA return based on audited accounts at the end of September.

Returns should be sent to the specified RBI email by CS/CFO/Company Directors from the registered email id.

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Details to be filed in the portal to complete filings

The first-time filers must be registered on the portal to complete the installation. If you have installed any return to the portal that can be viewed or downloaded again. Some of the common details that should be included in a portfolio are: 

• LLPIN/CIN 
• LLP Name/Company 
• Registered Address 
• Business Activity 
• Contact Name 
• Email Id and Phone number 
• Provisional Statistics/Audited figures
• Foreign Liabilities Information (Open FDI + Received Balance year) 
• Foreign Assets Details (ODI Opening balance + generated during the year)

Who should file an FLA Annual Return?

The regulation under FEMA, 1999 requires any company that has ODI or received FDI, to file an annual FLA return. Companies must report the FLA for the current financial year as well as (assets) for the previous year and liabilities. If a company does not have foreign assets or liabilities this year but has FDI or ODI outstanding from the previous year, it should submit an annual FLA return showing its outstanding assets or liabilities.

FEMA rules also require co-operatives to file an annual FLA return if they receive an FDI or do an ODI. In the case of co-operatives, the RBI will issue a popular CIN requesting only those that will be used to complete the annual FLA return. If a popular CIN is issued, the partner company will use the same to complete the FLA return.

Companies exempted from filling out FLA return

• Companies that have issued shares only based on non-returnable Non-Indian Citizens are free to file FLA returns.
• Companies that do not have all the remaining FDI balance or ODI at the end of the financial year are free to file FLA returns.
• Companies that have only received a share application and have not received an FDI or have not done any ODI, are free to file an FLA return.

Penalty

The default penalty is three times the total FDI/ODI or Rs 2 lakhs if the amount can be calculated by an additional Rs 5000 per day if the delay persists.

Final words

As more companies engage in foreign investment, the importance of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) regulations and compliance becomes a major part of corporate operations. The FLA annual return is one of the rules that must be met by FDI-affiliated companies (Foreign Direct Investments) or joint venture companies or subsidiaries that are wholly-owned, also known as Overseas Direct Investment (ODI). The annual return of the FLA must cover all foreign investments made by the company and must be submitted directly by the company to the Reserve Bank of India.