Mumbai: The new rule has been added to the new amendment to the RBI Foreign Exchange Management Regulations Act (FEMA) by adding a column for writing religion in the KYC form where personal details of bank accounts are to be added.
According to the latest changes to the FEMA Act, FEMA has authorized six minority religious groups who have migrated to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan to purchase land in India and open a bank account. But the same law does not recommend this option for Muslims and atheists.
The RBI has recommended that the religion of consumers be disclosed as part of the implementation of this amendment.
Since the benefits are limited to selected religious communities, banks have decided to include a column on KYC forms for investors and customers to refer to their religion.
Atheists and Muslim immigrants, especially those from neighboring countries such as Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Tibet, are excluded from the law. In an email questionnaire sent by the Times of India to find out more about it, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it had no comment.
According to the amendment, the Center provides a long-term visa (LTV) to persons who come to India from Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian minority groups in Bangladesh or Pakistan. The authorized beneficiary is only permitted to open an NRO account. According to the Citizenship Act of 1955, a person who becomes a citizen of India can change that NRO account to a resident account.
Bank accounts are the same as the citizenship of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. Before these changes, a foreign citizen was allowed to open FA resident accounts for a longer period and NRO accounts for six months, regardless of his or her religion and country.
