Ans: A related party is a person or entity that is related to the entity that is preparing its financial statements (referred to as the ‘reporting entity’).

A person or a close member of that person’s family is related to a reporting entity if that person:

(i) has control or joint control over the reporting entity.

(ii) has significant influence over the reporting entity; or

(iii) is a member of the key management personnel of the reporting entity or of a parent of the reporting entity.

In the definition of a related party, an associate includes subsidiaries of the associate and a joint venture includes subsidiaries of the joint venture. Therefore, for example, an associate’s subsidiary and the investor that has significant influence over the associate are related to each other.

Ans: Any domestic liabilities or assets (even if it is in foreign currency) should not be reported in the FLA return.

Ans: If the reporting Indian company invests in equity and/or participating preference shares of overseas company, under the Overseas Direct Investment Scheme in India, i.e. investment in Joint venture or wholly owned subsidiaries abroad, then it is considered as direct investment abroad of the Indian company.

NOTE: Registration guidelines and section-wise FAQs for further guidance to be file the FLA return are available in the FAQs section of the FLAIR portal (https://flair.rbi.org.in/fla/faces/pages/login.xhtml).