The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has replaced the existing US dollar-denominated registration fee for Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs)
and Foreign Venture Capital Investors (FVCIs) with a rupee-denominated fee structure to enable them to pay in the domestic currency. "Every designated depository participant shall remit the fees collected from the foreign portfolio investors in INR to the Board in the case of initial registration, within five working days from the date of grant of certificate of registration to the foreign portfolio investor, along with the details in the format, as may be specified from time to time," Sebi said. SEBI has also updated the common application form used for FPI registration, and mandated the inclusion of the applicant's date of birth or date of incorporation in the common application form to facilitate Permanent Account Number (PAN) allotment. To implement the change, Sebi has amended the rules governing FPIs, and the revised provisions will come into effect after six months, Sebi said in its notification. Through a notification, Sebi revised the registration fee for Category-I FPIs and FVCIs from USD 2,500 to Rs 2.3 lakh. Further, Sebi has also revised the application fee for seeking general relaxations or exemptions from strict enforcement of regulations from $1,000 to Rs 90,000 in eligible foreign exchange equivalent. According to latest data, Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) made a record net investment of Rs 41,773 crore in Indian government securities under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) Fully Accessible Route (FAR) in June. Turnover in the five-year swap, a key gauge of policy rate expectations, jumped to a record Rs 25,300 crore ($2.65 billion) on Wednesday, breaking past Rs 23,600 crore notional contracts clocked on Tuesday. India's five-year OIS fell to a four-month low of 6.1%, only 10 basis points above where it was before the start of the Iran war.
