Exporters Allowed to Open Foreign Currency Accounts Outside India but Payments for Imports must be within One Month of Receipt!

· Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a person resident in India) (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2025

· A person resident in India, being an exporter, may open, hold and maintain a Foreign Currency Account with a bank outside India, for realisation of full export value and advance remittance received by the exporter towards export of goods or services. Funds in this account may be utilised by the exporter for paying for its imports into India or repatriated into India within a period not exceeding the end of the next month from the date of receipt of the funds after adjusting for forward commitments, provided that the realisation and repatriation requirements as specified in Regulation 9 of Foreign Exchange Management (Export of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2015 are also met.

[Notification No. FEMA 10(R)(5)/2025-RB dated January 14, 2025]

Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a person resident in India) (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2025

In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 9 and clause (e) of sub-section (2) of section 47 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999), the Reserve Bank of India makes the following amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a person resident in India) Regulations, 2015 [Notification No. FEMA 10(R)/2015-RB dated January 21, 2016] (hereinafter referred to as 'the principal regulations'), namely:

1. Short Title and Commencement: -

(i) These regulations may be called the Foreign Exchange Management (Foreign Currency Accounts by a person resident in India) (Fifth Amendment) Regulations, 2025.

(ii) They shall come into force from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the principal regulations, in regulation 5, after sub-regulation (C) the following sub-regulation (CA) shall be inserted, namely:-

“CA. A person resident in India, being an exporter, may open, hold and maintain a Foreign Currency Account with a bank outside India, for realisation of full export value and advance remittance received by the exporter towards export of goods or services. Funds in this account may be utilised by the exporter for paying for its imports into India or repatriated into India within a period not exceeding the end of the next month from the date of receipt of the funds after adjusting for forward commitments, provided that the realisation and repatriation requirements as specified in Regulation 9 of Foreign Exchange Management (Export of Goods and Services) Regulations, 2015 are also met.”