In a quiet mid-October surprise, nearly four and a half years
after the passage of the Finance Act 2015 (20 of 2015), the
Government notified the effective date for implementation of the
clauses that amended Section 6 of the Foreign Exchange Management
Act, 1999 (FEMA). The notification defining debt
and non-debt instruments followed suit and then of course the Non
Debt Instrument Rules (NDI Rules) under FEMA,
which superseded the extant FEMA 20R and 21R.
How Have Things Changed?
What would appear to be simply a new name for the old FEMA 20 R
has in fact some changed parameters that need to be understood and
recognised. There are also small "changes" that can
technically be ascribed to the phenomenon of 'lost in
translation' – recent changes made by the Department for
Promotion of Industry and Internal Change (DPIIT)
and which had not yet found a place in FEMA 20 R. These are the
liberalisations announced vide PN 4 of 2019, pertaining to
the coal-mining sector,
