Is Foreign Exchange Trading Legal or Illegal in India ?

Forex or Foreign Exchange Trading is completely illegal in India by any manner or manipulation even through a foreign account.  If any resident is found trading Forex instruments on the forex market by RBI,  he/she can be charged for violation of law. The offence is Non-Bailable under FEMA 1999.

A year back, RBI had clarified that any person resident in India collecting and effecting/remitting such payments directly/indirectly outside India would make himself/ herself liable to be proceeded against with for contravention of FEMA, 1999 besides being liable for violation of regulations relating to know your customer (KYC) norms and anti money laundering (AML) standards.

A Circular issued by RBI said, “It has been observed that overseas foreign exchange trading has been introduced on a number of internet/electronic trading portals luring the residents with offers of guaranteed high returns based on such forex trading. The advertisements by these internet/online portals exhort people to trade in forex by way of paying the initial investment amount in Indian rupees,” the RBI said in a circular.