Living in overseas country opens gateway to gather millions as earning. Sophistication and standard lifestyle ends their hunt for it. But attachment to the native land is natural. Spending decades in foreign country evokes the feeling of homesickness. It is automatic. So, migrants have desire to make a comeback to the land of their origin. And this desire reaches at surge at the time of retirement. At that time, the need for purchasing a piece of land arises.

Need of Repatriation of funds:

Indian government has introduced services for NRIs by relaxing laws in order to invite investment.  Thereby, hordes of migrants have started making investment in NRIs property management. In this procedure, repatriation of fund becomes essential. Migrants secure funds in foreign bank account. Land investment requires millions to sign a deal. So, NRIs have to make transactions from the bank accounts. If they don’t have enough money in their domestic bank account, they have to repatriate it.

What is repatriation of fund?            

‘Repatriation’ is the term used for the flow of capital from the foreign bank account to the country of NRIs’ origin. For inking land deal, an NRI has to transfer money from the bank overseas to any Indian bank. This is termed as ‘repatriation of funds’.

NRIs investment in ‘Immovable Property’ only

Apart from Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI), NRIs have right to spend money in immovable property. It excludes agriculture land, forest land and any other land that belongs to the government. Residential and commercial land fit under immovable property.

Conditions for repatriation and payment  

Migrants cannot make land purchase in foreign currency. It is mandatory. The transaction for deal is to be done in rupees. Normal banking account has to be chosen as per regulations of FEMA and RBI. The payee migrant should be aware of the fact that repatriated amount should be strictly equal to the amount of property payment which is transferred to NRE account.

NRE Account:

Non-residents can open NRE account. ‘NRE’ stands for Non-Resident (External) Rupee Account. He/ she can maintain it as saving/ current/ recurring or fixed deposit account. NRI himself has to open it. This is what Regulation 2(vi) of notification no. FEMA 5/2000-RB states. The person having power of attorney has no right to open this account.