India Budget 2026: Six Key Measures Set To Boost NRI Investments

2026-02-01 11:29:22

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

It has eased rules under the Portfolio Investment Scheme and raised foreign holding limits, enabling NRIs and Overseas Indians to invest directly in the country's growth story

PUBLISHED: Sun 1 Feb 2026, 7:59 PM

By:
Nithin Belle

The Indian budget 2026, unveiled by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Sunday, has introduced some interesting features for Non-Resident Indians.

It has eased rules under the Portfolio Investment Scheme and raised foreign holding limits, enabling NRIs and Overseas Indians to invest directly in the country's growth story.

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There are half a dozen measures announced in the budget that will attract NRI flows into the country, which will help considerably in lowering the impact of the outflow of funds by foreign institutional investors, which has had a dramatic impact on the Indian rupee in recent months.

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One of the key features is allowing Persons Resident Outside India (PROIs) to invest directly in equities, doubling the per-investor limit from five to 10 per cent.

PROIs will now be allowed to invest in equity instruments of Indian listed companies through the Portfolio Investment Scheme. The overall investment limit for all individual PROIs has been raised to 24 per cent from 10 per cent at present.

The minister has also relaxed the requirement to obtain a tax deduction and collection account number (TAN) by a resident individual where the seller of the immovable property is non-resident.

Small taxpayers holding foreign assets will also get some relief. In the past, non-compliance involving a legacy of inadvertent non-disclosures for small taxpayers was prevalent; now the government has introduced a time-bound scheme for declaring foreign assets and foreign-sourced income, with a tax or fee based on the nature and source of acquisition.

Sitharaman has also proposed to exclude specified businesses of non-residents, which are currently under presumptive taxation, from the applicability of the Minimum Alternate Tax.

The minister has also proposed excluding those operating cruise ships or providing services or technology for setting up electronics manufacturing facilities in India from the tax.

Other measures that will benefit NRIs include passenger facilitation (enhancing duty-free allowances and allowing them to bring a new laptop), customs rationalisation, and tax collected at source (TCS) rationalisation.