If you are an NRI and are curious to know about the various types of accounts you can open in India you have come to the right place. To start off lets first define who an NRI is.
Definitions
NRI – NRI stands for Non-resident Indian. The term NRI is defined under FEMA (Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999) as a person who is a resident outside India who is either a citizen of India or a person of Indian origin (PIO).
PIO, Person of Indian origin, is defined as a foreign citizen not being a citizen of Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries (as may be specified by the Central Government from time to time) if,
1) He/she at any time held a Indian passport; or
2) He/she or either of his/her parents or grand parents or great grand parents was born in and permanently resident in India as defined in the Government of India Act, 1935
Now that we know who an NRI is we can proceed to know what sort of accounts he/she can open in India. There are broadly four types of accounts an NRI can open in India, they being NRE, NRO, FCNR & RFC. Lets have a look at each of these four in detail.
NRO Account
1) NRO stands for Non-resident Ordinary.
2) It is a Rupee account i.e. denominated in Rupees.
3) It can be in the form of a current account, savings account, term deposit account or a recurring deposit account.
4) Purpose – These accounts are generally used by NRIs who earn income in India (Say from rentals from their real estate properties, pension and the like).
5) While the principal amount is completely tax free, the interest you earn on that principal is taxed at 30.9%. More »