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What the Reserve Bank of India's rules mean for you when you buy or sell foreign currency notes in India.
Every foreign currency exchange in India is governed by the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and the rules the Reserve Bank of India issues under it. They apply identically at every authorised dealer and money changer, Mythri Forex included, so the limits and documents below are not our policy; they are the regulation we work within.
The rules that decide most transactions are the annual entitlement, how you are allowed to pay, how much you can carry as physical notes, and which documents you bring. The sections below group them by the three situations our branches handle most often: an individual travelling privately, a company sending someone on business travel, and a non-resident converting unspent rupees before departure.
Source: Reserve Bank of India, Master Directions on Money Changing Activities and the Liberalised Remittance Scheme.
Under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), a resident individual may draw foreign exchange of up to USD 250,000 in a financial year on the basis of self-certification, for tourism, private travel and the other permitted purposes. Travel to Nepal and Bhutan falls outside the scheme.
The limit is a combined one. Currency bought for a holiday, funds remitted towards a university fee and anything else drawn under LRS all count against the same USD 250,000 for that financial year, so your remaining entitlement is assessed by looking at everything already drawn across purposes.
Source: Reserve Bank of India, Master Direction on the Liberalised Remittance Scheme.
For a foreign exchange purchase, payment in currency cash is accepted only up to ₹50,000 per transaction. Above that, payment has to come through a banking channel, at our branches, a bank transfer completed before the currency is handed over.
The limit cannot be worked around by splitting a purchase in two. All purchases made within any 30-day period are treated as a single transaction for this purpose.
Source: Reserve Bank of India, Master Direction on Money Changing Activities.
A traveller may be sold physical foreign currency, notes and coins counted together, only up to the equivalent of USD 3,000. Any balance of the entitlement has to be taken in another permitted form, which in practice means a prepaid forex card.
This is why a larger travel budget usually leaves the counter as a modest amount of cash for your first day or two, plus a loaded forex card carrying the rest. At Mythri Forex that cash is always issued as currency notes; we do not deal in foreign coins.
Source: Reserve Bank of India, Master Direction on Money Changing Activities.
This is the ordinary case, an Indian resident, or a foreign national permanently residing in India, buying foreign exchange for tourism or other private travel.
Source: Reserve Bank of India, Master Direction on Money Changing Activities.
A trip for an international conference, a training programme or a study tour is treated as a business visit. The annual entitlement and the USD 3,000 notes cap work exactly as they do for private travel; what changes is the paperwork, because the drawal is being made on a company's behalf.
Source: Reserve Bank of India, Master Direction on Money Changing Activities.
A non-resident leaving India may reconvert unspent Indian currency into foreign exchange at the time of departure, provided the rupees came from a recorded exchange in the first place. The encashment certificate is what evidences that.
Where an encashment certificate cannot be produced for a genuine reason, a maximum of ₹10,000 may be reconverted, and only where departure is within seven days.
Source: Reserve Bank of India, Master Direction on Money Changing Activities.
Mythri Forex is a branch business. Every currency exchange is completed in person at one of our three Hyderabad branches; there is no online booking or online transaction step, and the exchange rate is calculated in-branch at the time of your transaction rather than published in advance.
Our team checks your documents against the requirements above before quoting, so you find out what is missing before you pay rather than at the counter. If you are travelling on a larger budget, or need a less common currency, call the branch ahead so we can confirm availability.
We deal in currency notes only, in both directions: we do not issue foreign coins with a purchase, and we cannot buy coins back when you sell unused currency after a trip.
This page summarises the material below. Where they differ, the official source is correct.
The services at our branches this guide applies to.
Buy and sell 30+ international currencies for tourism, education, business, and other permitted purposes.
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