| Sl no. | Particulars | Liaison Office (LO) | Branch Office (BO) | Project office (PO) |
| 1 | Eligibility | Profit making track record during the immediately preceding three financial years in the home country and net worth of not less than $ 50,000 or its equivalent. | Profit making track record during the immediately preceding five financial years in the home country and net worth of not less than $ 100,000 or its equivalent. | NIL |
| 2 | Permitted Activities | LO can not undertake any commercial activity and acts as a channel of communication between the principal place of business or head office and entities in India. Its role is limited to collecting information about possible market opportunities and providing information about the company and its products to prospective Indian customers. It can promote export/import from/to India and also facilitate technical/financial collaboration between the parent company and companies in India. It cannot earn any income in India. | BO can be set up by foreign companies. The permitted activities include export/import of goods; rendering professional or consultancy services; carrying out research work, in which the parent company is engaged; promoting technical or financial collaborations between Indian companies and parent or overseas group company; representing the parent company in India and acting as buying/selling agents in India; rendering services in information technology and development of software in India; rendering technical support to the products supplied by the parent/ group companies and foreign airline/shipping company. There is a general permission to non-resident companies for establishing BO in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to undertake manufacturing and service activities subject to: 1. BOs are functioning in those sectors where 100% FDI is permitted 2. BOs comply with Chapter XXII of the Companies Act, 2013 3. BOs function on a stand-alone basis |
PO can be set up to execute specific projects in India and cannot undertake or carry on any activity other than the activity relating and incidental to the execution of the project. |
| 3 | Remittance | NA | Permitted to remit profits net of applicable taxes and on submission of requisite documents. | Intermittent remittances by companies pending winding-up permitted s.t. satisfaction of AD Category 1 bank. |
| 4 | Tenure | Generally for 3 years *except in the case of NBFCs and those entities engaged in the construction and development sectors, for whom the validity period is two years only |
NA | As per the tenure of the Project |
Read Our More Blogs : Benefits of Hiring a Mergers and Acquisitions Consultant in India