FAQs:-  

Presently the limit is USD 25000/- for drawing the FX for undertaking the business trip abroad. This drawl is available without obtaining the prior permission of RBI irrespective of the period of stay outside India.

In case a person wins a lottery , whether he can remit these funds abroad through the authorised dealers.

Ans. No, the remittances of the proceeds of the lottery winnings are prohibited from being remitted outside India. Some more cases like the following are also specifically prohibited from being remitted.

Transactions for which remittances facilities are not available:

1. Remittances of winnings from racings, ridings etc . or from any other hobby.
2. Remittances for payment of lottery tickets , banned /prescribed magazines , football pools, sweepstakes etc.,
3. Payment of commission on exports made towards equity investments in joint ventures / wholly owned subsidiaries abroad of Indian companies.
4. Remittance of dividend to which the requirements of diveidend balancing is applicable.
5. Payment related to call back services of telephones.
6. Remittance of interest income accrued on the NRSpecial Rupee account.

What are the changes in the rules governing the foreign travel vis-à-vis the old rules .

Earlier Chapter 8 of the Exchange Control Manual delat with the ceilings pertaining to the foreign travel and Miscellaneous remittances. These rules even prescribed certain forms for making the remittances requests. This Chapter was now amended wef 16/5/2000 wherein most of these rules and forms were amended / omitted. New set of rules are framed regulating these remittances under the title Current Account Transactions. Current Account transactions are defined to include all the non capital transactions including payments arising in course of foreign trade, other current business, servicesand short term credit facilities , payment of interest due on loans, payments for living expenses of the parents, spouse, children living abroad, payment for travel, education, and medical care of the parents, spouse and children.

Under these new rules, various restrictions/ prohibitions are provided for these different types of transactions.A list of these are furnished below. All other transactions shall be freely permitted to be remittable.

(I) Those tranactions which are strictly prohibited such as

a) Foreign exchange for trips to Nepal and Bhutan

b) Transactions specified in Schedule I. ( same as mentioned in ans. 2)

(II) Those transactions which are permitted with the prior approval of the Central Govt.

Some of these transactions are :

Cultural tours, advertisement abroad by any state Govt. or PSU, remittance of freight of vessel chartered by a PSU, payment of hiring charges of the transponders etc.

(III) Those transactions where prior permission of the RBI is necessary

Such as remittances by artists, release of FX exceeding USD 5000- for undertaking private trips abroad ,gift remittances exceding USD 5000/- per beneficiary per annum, Donation excceding USD 5000/- per annum per beneficiary, Exchange facility excceding USD 5000/- for persons going abroad for employment etc.

Changes with respect to the documentation: Now RBI has no more prescribed the relevant forms /documents which an authorised dealer shall collect from the applicant . Therefore all the documents showing the properness/ genuineness of the FX transactions shall be retained .