Guidelines for acceptance of passage fare in rupees/foreign currency in India by Airline/ Shipping companies or their agents

• Passage fare in rupees can be accepted freely from residents for their travel from/to India.
• Passage fare in rupees can be accepted from non-residents from their bank accounts in India for their travel to India. Passage fare in rupees can also be accepted from non-residents, who are on a visit to India, for their travel from India.
• Passage fare in rupees can be accepted from residents on behalf of non-residents, for the latter's travel to/from India.
• Passage fares in rupees can be accepted for crew members of foreign shipping companies for their travel on the carriage of foreign airline companies provided payment is made out of the net remittable freight collections of the concerned shipping company. (A certificate to this effect should be obtained from the agent in India of the foreign shipping company.)
• The tickets issued in India should normally be those of a carrier operating in or through India. This however, does not restrain the carriers operating in or through India from issuing tickets with coupons covering journeys between two points abroad on a carrier not so operating (e.g. Air India ticket may be issued containing coupons one or more of which are for confirmed/open dated booking for journey/s between European and African ports by an airline which does not have any flights touching Indian ports). Offline carriers i.e. those which do not operate their services in or through India or their General Sales Agent (GSA) in India may, after obtaining required permission from RBI under section 29(1)(a) of FERA, sell tickets and/or airway bills against payment in Indian rupees, only in conjunction with the tickets/airway bills issued for travel to/from India and import/export into/from India, as also in respect of their adhoc flight/s to/from India.
• Refunds on tickets/Prepaid ticket advices etc. for which payments were received in rupees in India from residents, should be made only in rupees in India.
• In all other cases, the cost of ticket should be accepted only in a convertible foreign currency or in rupees if supported by an encashment certificate in the prescribed form issued by an Authorized Dealers.
• Particulars of the traveler such as name, address, nationality, passport number and date and place of its issue, route and the amount of fare collected should be obtained and kept on record by the airline company. Where a resident on behalf of a non-resident pays the fare, the name and address of the person paying the fare should be recorded.

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