NRI Investments through Mutual Funds in India:

Non Resident Indians (NRI's) are attached to motherland. Though they live in different parts of the world, they have a native affinity to India and are well connected with their roots.

With India emerging as one of the fastest growing and promising economies of the world, it is natural that they would like to participate in India's growth story.

Though there are different immigrations status like PIO's / OCI's etc, from Indian tax law's point of view there is only one category called NRI's. Anyone who lives overseas, away from India for more than 182 days - they qualify to be an NRI.

And NRI's can have income from overseas or from India:

• They can invest their overseas money from their NRE bank account in NRE status itself and can repatriate it at any time. 
• On the other hand they can invest their domestic income in India - by way of rental / business / investment income - but they fall under Non Repartriable status.

Investing in Mutual funds in NRI status - be it NRE or NRO - is ultra simple. All they need to do is just complete their KYC registration, which is a one time physical documentation process. After that they can invest in mutual funds. 

(In direct stock market investing, it is mandatory for NRI's to open a Portfolio Information Scheme (PIS) account and then invest. Every share transaction - be it Buy or Sell - is communicated to RBI through your banker. Hence it becomes cumbersome and expensive. This PIS account is not required for Mutual Fund Investments).

NRI's from USA and Canada can invest in any scheme of the following fund houses:

1. L&T Mutual Fund
2. PPFAS Mutual Fund
3. Sundaram Mutual Fund
4. UTI Mutual Fund
5. DHFL Pramerica Mutual Fund
6. Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund
7. SBI Mutual Fund
8. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund

NRI's from other countries can invest in any mutual fund schemes of the 40+Asset management companies. There is no restrictions.

The restriction for US / Canada based NRI's is because of the cumbersome compliance requirements under FATCA or Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act. Under FATCA, it is compulsory for all financial institutions to share the details of transactions involving US citizens, including NRIs with the US Government. FATCA ensures that there is no deliberate tax evasion by US citizens on income generated overseas. India signed the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the USA on July 9, 2015, for improving International Tax Compliance and implementing FATCA. The documentation is standard for all investors, whether they are NRIs or RIs.

With in each fund house, you have a plethora of schemes under debt and equity categories: 

• Under Debt funds
• Liquid funds, 
• Ultra short term funds, 
• Short term fund, 
• Medium term funds, 
• Long term funds, 
• Under Equity Funds:
• Large cap funds - investing in Top 100 companies by market cap
• Mid cap funds - investing in 101 to 250th stock by market cap
• Small cap funds - investing from 251st stock
• Multicap funds
• Theme funds
• Goal oriented funds
• Hybrid funds - that invest in mix of equity and debt, following specific asset allocation model.

Documents required for NRI Investing are:

• PAN card 
• Passport copy 
• Visa copy 
• Indian address proof 
• Overseas address proof 
• Overseas Tax ID card 

For further clarifications/ documentations / forms, do email us at : invest@easyinvest.co.in