For NRIs balancing life across two countries, financial decisions rarely stay simple. A change in tax rules back home, a new banking regulation, or a shift in how succession law applies to inherited property can quietly reshape someone’s financial plans without them even realising it. This is one of the reasons Ashutosh Financial Services continues to run educational sessions for the Indian diaspora — because good financial decisions start with a clear understanding of the rules that actually govern them.
On 1st March 2025, the firm hosted a webinar titled “Changing Landscape of Taxation, Regulations, and Investments in India,” designed specifically for UK-based NRIs. The session was led by Daxesh Kothari and CA CFP Rajit Kothari, both of whom work closely with NRI clients on tax, regulatory, and investment matters. For a UK NRI audience, the timing was relevant: recent years have brought meaningful shifts in how India taxes and regulates non-resident wealth, and many of these changes carry direct consequences for anyone holding Indian bank accounts, investments, or property.
The session opened with a look at NRI banking regulations, an area that trips up many people simply because the rules changed the moment their residency status did. Under India’s foreign exchange law (FEMA), a resident savings account cannot legally remain in that form once someone becomes an NRI — it needs to be converted, typically to an NRO account. The speakers walked through the three main account types NRIs commonly use. An NRO account holds funds that originate in India and aren’t automatically repatriable, and any income earned in it is taxable. An NRE account, by contrast, holds foreign remittances in rupee form, is fully repatriable, and earns tax-exempt interest. An FCNR account keeps deposits in foreign currency itself, avoiding conversion risk altogether. The webinar also covered how NRIs can move funds from an NRO to an NRE account or abroad, within the current annual limit of one million US dollars, provided applicable taxes are settled first.
From there, the discussion moved into documentation — specifically PAN, Aadhaar, and OCI requirements. A PAN card, essentially India’s tax identification number, turns out to be a prerequisite for far more than filing returns: opening a bank account, investing in mutual funds, buying property, or even purchasing a vehicle above certain thresholds all require one. The speakers also clarified a point many NRIs get wrong — under the Aadhaar Act, NRIs and OCI holders aren’t eligible for an Aadhaar card at all, and are therefore exempt from linking requirements that otherwise apply to resident taxpayers.
Taxation formed a central part of the session. The core principle explained was straightforward: any income that arises or is received in India is taxable in India, regardless of where the person lives. But NRIs aren’t left exposed to being taxed twice on the same income. India’s Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) with the UK allows tax already paid in India to be claimed as a credit against UK tax liability, once that income is also disclosed there. The speakers also touched on succession — a topic often overlooked until it becomes urgent. Indian assets pass according to Indian succession law, which varies by community (Hindu Succession Act, Muslim personal law, or the Indian Succession Act for Christians and Parsis), and a nominee on an account is only a custodian of the asset, not its legal owner. A valid will for Indian assets can be prepared and signed outside India, provided it’s properly witnessed and notarised.
The latter part of the session turned to opportunities, framed around India’s economic trajectory. Comparative data shown during the webinar placed India’s projected 2025 growth rate among the highest of major economies, and highlighted the relative strength of Indian equity markets over the preceding three years. Several structural factors were discussed as drivers of this — a young, English-speaking workforce, digitisation of financial infrastructure, and sustained infrastructure investment. Against this backdrop, the speakers reviewed how NRIs can participate: through mutual funds, portfolio management services, guaranteed-return pension plans, and increasingly through GIFT City, India’s international financial services centre, which offers NRIs a way to invest in Indian markets through USD-denominated structures without needing a PAN, demat account, or Indian bank account. Real estate, by comparison, was discussed as a less practical route for most NRIs today, given the liquidity and management challenges it presents from abroad.
Sessions like this reflect a simple belief — that NRIs make better financial decisions when the underlying rules are explained clearly, not left to assumption or hearsay. As India’s regulatory and investment landscape continues to evolve, Ashutosh Financial Services intends to keep bringing this kind of clarity to audiences who need it most.
