Hi, my name is Sanjeev Kamdar, Partner, KDP Accountants.
With an experience of over 33 years, I would be glad to help you with your requirements
A LO is in the nature of a representative office set up primarily to explore and understand the business and investment climate. A Liaison Office (LO) is not permitted to undertake any commercial /trading /industrial activity, directly or indirectly, and is required to maintain itself out of inward remittances received from parent company through normal banking channels. The LO is permitted to undertake following activities only:
Any foreign company intending to open a LO in India is required to obtain prior approval from the RBI, the apex bank in India. Approval is usually granted for one to three years and can be renewed on expiry thereof
The LO generally acts as a communication channel between the parent company
overseas and its present or prospective customers in India. The LO can also be set up to
establish business contacts or gather market intelligence to promote the products or
services of the overseas parent company.
The LO cannot undertake any business activity in India nor earn any income in India.
At the time of closure of the LO, RBI grants permission to repatriate the balance in the
Indian bank account to the parent company subject to fulfillment of prescribed
conditions.
Since the LO is not permitted to earn any income, it should not constitute a taxable
entity in India. However, the LO would be required to withhold tax from certain
payments and hence is expected to comply with the requisite “tax withholding”
obligations under the domestic tax law.
To open a LO, the parent company has to apply to the Reserve Bank of India and is
normally granted permission within 6 to 8 weeks.
LO is subjected to few restrictions; some of them that deserve to be well understood are
reproduced here:
As per recent circulars of RBI, a Foreign company wishing to set up a LO needs to
fulfill following requirements:
Eligibility Criteria for Establishment of LO in India
Applicants that do not satisfy the eligibility criteria and are subsidiaries of other companies may submit a Letter of Comfort from their parent company as per Annexure, subject to the condition that the parent company satisfies the eligibility criteria as prescribed.
Following documents are required for applying to RBI for setting up the LO in India:
1) You need to choose a banker in India with whom you would bank once the LO is
formed. It may be noted that the application for setting up is to be forwarded to
RBI through this bankers
2) Application in Relevant Forms, duly completed in all respects and signed by the
authorized signatory of the foreign entity in the home country may be submitted
along with the Letter of Comfort, wherever applicable, to the designated AD
Category - I bank for onward transmission to the Reserve Bank, along with their
comments and recommendations and the prescribed documents.
3) Copy of the Certificate of Incorporation / Registration attested by the Notary
Public in the country of registration
[If the original Certificate is in a language other than in English, the same may be
translated into English and notarized as above and cross verified/attested by the
Indian Embassy/ Consulate in the home country].
4) Latest Audited Balance sheet of the applicant company.
[If the applicants’ home country laws/regulations do not insist on auditing of
accounts, an Account Statement certified by a Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
or any Registered Accounts Practitioner by any name, clearly showing the net
worth may be submitted]
5) KYC i.e. Bankers' Report from the applicant’s banker in the host country /
country of registration showing the number of years the applicant has had
banking relations with that bank.
The Process entails following steps:-
a) An application will be submitted to your banker as mentioned at Pt 1 above.
They will scrutinise the proposal and forward the same to RBI. In case they have
any queries, the same will be sorted out in consultation with KDP.
b) RBI will scrutinise the papers and issue a letter giving permission for the LO.
This permission is typically valid for a period of three years
c) We need to approach the bankers with a copy of this letter and relevant
documents or opening of Bank account and on scrutiny of documents, bank
account is established.
d) We are expected to obtain following registrations –
e) We are now ready to start operations in India.
Hi, my name is Sanjeev Kamdar, Partner, KDP Accountants.
With an experience of over 33 years, I would be glad to help you with your requirements