Project Office Registration in India

A project office is nothing but a place of business established with the intention of representing a foreign entity to execute a project in India. Companies are allowed to form project offices either on a temporary basis or permanent. Setting up a project office in India for foreign companies can be accomplished at the RBI and RoC offices before businesses can start their actual operations. Companies need to fulfill certain conditions for the registrations. An application through the category 1 AD Bank along with the documents related to project agreement is required.

Foreign Companies face certain issues while incorporating a Subsidiary Company or Private Limited Company in India. The issues are-

• The requirement of heavy compliance
• Wastage of time and resources
• Closer proceedings take huge time

To curb these issues and make the entry and exit process easier for the Foreign Companies, RBI has permitted the Foreign Companies Project Office setup in India. Given that, the applicant company has secured a contract from an Indian company to carry out a project in India. Alongside this, there are certain conditions- The inward remittance, coming from abroad is funding the project or, A Multilateral or bilateral International Financing Agency is funding the project or, An appropriate authority has to permit the process of project office registration in India or an Indian company or entity, which is associated with the contract has to permit the Term Loan for the project through any Public Financial Institution or by a bank, situated in India.

Having a secured project in India, a foreign entity can ask for permission to set up a project office in the country. Here are the mandatory requirements to apply for setting up the project office in India, Formal Contract of The Project As mentioned earlier, a foreign company looking to set a PO needs to have a secured project in India with a formal agreement for the same financial statement. Foreign Funding The project needs to be funded through inward remittance from abroad or at least an International financing agency needs to fund the project Clearance of Project A certificate of clearance which shows the appropriate authority or ministry has cleared the project. In some cases, a clearance certificate from the environment ministry is also applicable. Indian Funding If in case there is no foreign funding the company need to avail a term loan from a bank or public financial institute in India through the Indian Entity who has awarded the contract

• FNC form signed by the AR
• Note on the location and proposed activity of the Project Office
• Proof of the parent company’s registration, which is located outside India
• NOC from the owners
• Board resolution for opening a Branch Office
• Audited financial report of the past 5 years
• Certificate of the Incorporation & MOA
• Authorized Signatory’s KYC

• Our end to end solution for setting up your Project Office in India involves the below processes. Have a look.
• Legalization/ Attestation of documents
• Application filing with RBI through AD bank
• Getting the KYC verification process done
• Getting approval of RBI for Project Office registration in India
• Project Office registration in India with the ROC
• Getting PAN Card, Tax Deduction Number, and Bank account opening
• Other Registration and Licenses