Many Non Resident Indians wants to start investing in Indian stock market. Following are few steps required in order to start investing in shares in India.

KYC Compliance

Non Resident Indians need to be KYC compliant in order to make any investment in India. KYC stands for ‘Know Your Customer’. Forms for KYC are easily available on websites of Banks, mutual fund companies, financial intermediaries, brokers and KYC Registration Agency(KRA).

One can submit it with the following documents at Point of Service (PoS) in person OR online OR to KRA agency:

1. Copy of Identity
2. PAN card.
3. Copy of overseas address
4. Permanent address
5. Copy of PIO card (For PIOs)
6. In case of Merchant Navy NRIs, Mariner’s declaration OR copy of Continuous Discharge Certificate (CDC)

PAN card is mandatory and it may require additional details like gross annual income, tax ID, occupation, nominee name etc.

PINS Account for stock investing

PINS i.e. Portfolio Investment Scheme is a scheme by RBI for NRIs/PIOs who wants to invest in Indian stock market or in convertible debentures. This account is for NRIs who are holding NRE account and want to invest in Indian share market. (It also called as ‘PIS’ account.)

PINS is applicable to NRE account holders as each transaction executed through this account is reported to RBI and subject to tax at source. All the transactions of buying and selling are routed through PINS. NRIs can open it with the designated bank branches which are authorized by RBI. An NRI can open only one PINS account.

Documents required to open this account are:

1. Passport copy
2. Work permit Or visa copy
3. PIO card (if applicable)
4. Address proof

Also, it may require additional documents and further details. The PINS account will get linked to your NRE or NRO account.

In case of NRO account holders, they do not need PINS account. But a special account will be opened in order to verify the transactions and if there is any short term capital gain which is subject to tax.

Demat Account

The next step is to open Demat account. NRI’s can open Demat account with any Depository Participant (DP) in India. While opening an account he/she needs to mention the status as NRI and sub type i.e. repatriable or non repatriable, in the form.

Trading Account:

Same like Demat, NRI needs to open a trading account with a registered broker of Indian stock exchange.

With Demat & Trading account, NRIs can start investing in Indian stock market. But there are few restrictions on NRI’s:

• NRI’s are not allowed to do Intra-day trading.
• Only delivery based transactions are allowed.
• Funds should be available before making purchases and
• Securities/stocks should be in the demat before making sell order.

In case, you are holding any shares before becoming an NRI then you can transfer the holdings from old demat to new demat account under NRI status. After that you need to close the resident demat and trading account.