FLA return: who must file, the 15 July deadline and how to file it

If you filed in July on unaudited figures, the RBI's FAQ sets no revision date. It asks for the revised return as soon as the audited statements are available: once the audit is signed, you request permission on its FLAIR portal and, when the RBI approves, file it.

Who has to file the FLA return?

The FLA return is the annual return on Foreign Liabilities and Assets, one of the reporting duties under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) that come with foreign investment. The RBI runs it as a census of the cross-border liabilities and assets of Indian entities and uses the results to compile India's balance of payments and international investment position. The company enters its figures on FLAIR, the RBI's Foreign Liabilities and Assets Information Reporting portal, with no balance sheet or profit and loss account attached.

The RBI's FAQ on the FLA return, updated as on 1 July 2026, puts the duty on every entity resident in India with foreign direct investment (FDI) or overseas direct investment (ODI) outstanding at 31 March of the reporting year or of the year before. The entities it names include companies, limited liability partnerships (LLPs), partnership and proprietary firms, public private partnerships and Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Either kind of investment is enough on its own: a private limited company files because its foreign parent holds its shares, and an Indian company that has only invested abroad files under regulation 10(5) of the Overseas Investment Regulations, 2022.

The RBI's 2024-25 census, released on 29 October 2025 as provisional results, drew responses from 45,702 entities. Of the 41,517 that reported FDI, ODI or both at the end of March 2025, 7,880 had not reported in the previous round. Over three-fourths of the companies reporting inward direct investment were subsidiaries of foreign companies, in which a single foreign investor held more than 50 per cent of the equity.

There is no size, turnover or shareholding threshold. A foreign holding below 10% of the equity is still reported, in a different part of the return, so the 10% line decides where the holding is entered and has no bearing on whether the company files. Shares issued to a non-resident on a non-repatriable basis are not foreign investment for the return, and share application money does not count until shares are allotted. Domestic assets and liabilities stay out of the return even when they are in foreign currency.

An LLP files on the same basis as a company once a foreign investor's capital contribution is outstanding. An AIF registers on FLAIR like any other entity and then files by email: FLAIR has no online form for AIFs, so the fund asks flareturn@rbi.org.in for the Excel format and sends the completed file back the same way.

A sale to residents does not end the duty in the year it happens, because the return covers two year-ends. If your foreign investors held shares at 31 March 2026 and sold them all to residents before 31 March 2027, the company still files by 15 July 2027, showing the holding at 31 March 2026 and the disinvestment. It files nothing the following year if nothing is outstanding at both 31 March 2027 and 31 March 2028.

When is the FLA return due?

The return is due by 15 July every year. Regulation 4(2) of the RBI's reporting regulations for foreign investment sets that date for a company with FDI and an LLP with foreign capital contribution, and the RBI's Master Direction on reporting under FEMA applies it to an entity with ODI. The return has been due by that date since the RBI introduced it in 2011, when it replaced Part B of Form FC-GPR, the report a company files when it issues shares to a foreign investor.

The FLA year runs from 1 April to 31 March, and each return reports positions at the latest 31 March and the one before it. A company whose accounts close on another date still reports at 31 March, from its own assessment of the figures at that date. The next return therefore reports positions at 31 March 2027 and 31 March 2026.

A new subsidiary files its first return by the 15 July after the first 31 March at which shares allotted to its foreign investor are outstanding. Shares allotted to the foreign parent in February 2027 mean a first return by 15 July 2027; shares allotted in April 2027, even against money received in March, mean a first return by 15 July 2028.

For the return due in July 2026, the RBI extended the date to 31 July 2026. The extension was reported on the morning of 15 July 2026, the original due date, and the regulation still sets 15 July, so the extension is no basis for planning the 2027 return. Queries go to flareturn@rbi.org.in, the address the RBI's FAQ gives; the older surveyfla@rbi.org.in is no longer in use. For the year's other filing dates, see the compliance calendar for foreign-owned companies.

Can we file before the audit is finished?

Yes. The RBI's FAQ accepts the return on audited or unaudited figures, so a company whose audit is still running files on its provisional or unaudited statements by the due date and revises the return afterwards. The revision takes three steps on FLAIR:

1. When the audited accounts are ready, log in, open Menu in the upper left corner, choose Multiple Year CIN Enable Screen (CIN is the Corporate Identity Number), select the year and submit. The submission is the company's request for permission to file a revised return.
2. Wait for the RBI's approval. Without it, the company cannot file a revised return.
3. File the revised return for that year. The FAQ asks for it as soon as the audited statements are available.

The company revises whatever the size of the difference: the FAQ asks for revised figures irrespective of any variation in amount or percentage, so no difference is small enough to leave the unaudited return standing.

Some guides give 30 September as the date for the revision; the RBI's FAQ does not. Where the RBI's Master Direction on reporting does set 30 September, the date belongs to a different filing, the Annual Activity Certificate of a branch or liaison office. If your auditor signed the accounts in September, the FAQ already expects the request for permission.

How is the FLA return filed on FLAIR?

Companies and LLPs file the return on FLAIR at flair.rbi.org.in. Form FC-GPR, due within 30 days of a share issue, and the other reports on the RBI's Single Master Form go through a different portal, FIRMS.

1. On FLAIR, choose Registration for New Entity Users, fill in the FLA user registration form, upload the Verification Letter and the Authority Letter, and submit.
2. The RBI emails a user id and a default password to the authorised person named in the registration.
3. Log in with those details and file the return. FLAIR runs validation checks on the data as it is submitted and calculates the market value of the foreign equity itself, so the company does not compute that figure. The instructions, user manuals and a detailed FAQ are on the portal.

The RBI cannot change a registered entity's name, address, email address, authorised person or head of institution on FLAIR. To change any of them, the company emails flareturn@rbi.org.in with its CIN and username to have the account deactivated, which takes one to two working days, and then registers again. If it re-registers under the same CIN or LLP Identification Number (LLPIN), the data it filed before carries over to the new account. A company whose CIN changed after 31 March files that year's return under the old CIN.

What happens if the FLA return is late or missed?

The RBI's FAQ treats a return not filed by the due date as a violation of FEMA, for which the penalty clause may be invoked. What the company then pays depends on how late the return is and which route it takes:

The late submission fee is the cheaper route: the compounding application fee alone is higher than the fee for one return, and the compounding guidance then adds Rs 10,000 for each delayed return. A late submission fee once paid is not refunded, and an incomplete return keeps the delay running until the RBI receives it complete in all respects.

Once the fee route is closed or not taken, the company is liable to penal action under FEMA, and compounding is the voluntary settlement of an admitted contravention. The late return is filed first, because the RBI processes no compounding application until the corrective action is complete, and compliance with the reporting requirement is part of that action. An application made before then is returned. The RBI keeps the application fee, and a resubmitted application needs no second fee. A company with inward investment applies to the RBI Regional Office with jurisdiction over its registered office. Where the RBI lets an incomplete application be completed, the 180 days run from the date the missing documents arrive.

A similar contravention committed within three years of an earlier one that was compounded cannot itself be compounded; the Act's penalty provisions then apply. The three adjudication figures in the table are maximums.

A company that has invested abroad has a further reason to file on time. The RBI tells banks to check that a company with overseas investment has filed its FLA return before making a remittance for it, so its authorised dealer (AD) bank, the Indian bank that handles its foreign exchange, can be expected to ask for the return before the next payment abroad. Regulation 12 of the Overseas Investment Regulations also provides that, until any delay in reporting is regularised, the company may make no further financial commitment to the foreign entity and may not transfer the investment. The rule covers every filing under those regulations, the FLA return among them.

We missed the 2026 return. What should we do now?

The 2026 return covered positions at 31 March 2026 and 31 March 2025. If your company had FDI or ODI outstanding at either date and did not file, the return is late, and the late submission fee remains open to it within three years of the due date.

Step 1: List the missing years and file each return

List each year in which the company had FDI or ODI outstanding at either 31 March and filed no return; each missing year is a separate return. For a year whose return was never filed, the RBI's FAQ says the company files it after taking the RBI's approval.

Step 2: Arrange the late submission fee

The company arranges the fee with the Foreign Exchange Department of the RBI Regional Office for its registered office and pays it by demand draft or by an Indian bank transfer (NEFT or RTGS). For the fee, the RBI's FAQ also points to the FAQs and user manuals on the FIRMS portal and to the FIRMS helpdesk at helpfirms@rbi.org.in; the return itself is filed on FLAIR.

Step 3: Compound any return more than three years late

Compounding follows for a return more than three years late, and for any return the company does not regularise with the fee. The company can apply on its own initiative or after the RBI issues a Memorandum of Contraventions, once the late return is on file.

Step 4: Diarise the next return

Put the next due date in the diary, with a reminder to request the revision on FLAIR when the audit of the year to 31 March 2027 is signed. A company with overseas investment should file before it asks its bank for the next remittance.

To discuss your company's FEMA filings with LegalJini's FDI advisory service, write to support@legaljini.com or use the callback form on the website; LegalJini replies to every enquiry within 12 hours. For a foreign company still setting up in India, LegalJini's subsidiary set-up, which includes the FDI and FEMA filings, costs a one-time fee of USD 1,500.

Frequently asked questions

Does a GIFT City entity file the FLA return with the RBI?

Since the RBI updated its FAQ on 1 July 2026, an entity in GIFT City regulated by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) follows IFSCA's instructions for its FLA return and does not file it with the RBI; an Indian company investing in, or receiving investment from, such an entity still reports that investment in its own FLA return to the RBI. A foreign company's own subsidiary in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) still owes a return, under IFSCA's instructions. The FAQ's earlier version of 25 March 2026 told IFSC entities to file the RBI's return, so a group that planned on the March answer should check which regulator receives each entity's return.

Does the foreign parent file the FLA return?

No. The duty sits on the Indian entity. The foreign parent and the company's individual shareholders do not file it. The Indian company reports the parent's investment in its own return, by the country of the immediate investor, so where a group holds the Indian company through an intermediate holding company, the Indian company reports the investment under the holding company's country.

Will the RBI publish our company's figures?

No. The RBI's FAQ says the figures in each entity's return are kept confidential and only consolidated aggregates are released.