Payments to India

Banking regulation in India requires a certain level of information about the payment you’re making. You’ll need to choose a purpose for your payment, as well as specific information to support it. Without this information, your payment could be cancelled, delayed or rejected.

To support you with this, when you make a payment online, you’ll be asked to choose one of the 15 payment types listed below. We’ll then ask you to include payment details that need to be formatted in a certain way, to match the purpose chosen. Details of what to include can be found below and will also be shown when you make the payment online.

If you’re not making the payment online, you’ll need to provide the purpose of payment and supporting details to the Barclays colleague you speak to. In most cases these should be covered by the information on this page, but if you can’t find a relevant payment purpose, refer to our payment formatting guide.

Online Banking purposes

1. Personal gifts: include the purpose/your residency status/relationship to the recipient
2. Religious or charitable donation: include the FCRA number
3. Payment for educational services: for example, fees
4. Family maintenance and savings: from an Indian non-resident
5. Exports payments after shipment: not to Nepal or Bhutan
6. Exports advance payments: not to Nepal or Bhutan
7. Loan payment
8. Salary payment: to employees
9. Office maintenance: include UIN
10. Travel: bookings
11. Reimbursement: of expenses
12. House maintenance: payment to caretaker
13. Foreign direct investment: details required
14. Legal fees: details required
15. Corporate payments: include nature of goods or services

If you want to buy a property in India, please contact one of our branches or use Telephone Banking, where available. Details of the information you’ll need can be found below.

1. Personal gifts

Gifts can only be sent between private individuals. Payments to and from businesses won’t be accepted.

What to enter in the payment detail field: Gift for [relative's relationship to you or occasion] and your residency status.

Your resident status can be

• NRI - Non-Resident Indian
• PIO - Person of Indian Origin
• OCI - Overseas Citizen of India
• Foreign national

For example
Gift for niece / REM status NRI
Gift for brother / REM status Resident Indian

2. Religious or charitable donation

Payments can only be made to registered charities. Please enter a valid FCRA number (available from the Ministry of Home Affairs website), otherwise the payment won’t be accepted. The beneficiary must always be a legal entity and not an individual.

What to enter in the payment detail field: Payment purpose, FCRA number. The payment field should also include your reason, such as 'charity'.

For example
Donation to charity, FCRA number 23166013R

3. Payment for educational services: for example, fees

What to enter in the payment detail field: [Relative’s relationship to you] [fee type] for [month and year] to [month and year]

For example
Daughter’s college fees for September 2018 to June 2019
Son’s school fees for March to September 2019

4. Family maintenance and savings: from an Indian non-resident

Payments not including the payee’s relationship to you won’t be accepted. You can only make payments to an immediate relative; for example, father, son, daughter, sister, brother – not an uncle, aunt or cousin. 

What to enter in the payment detail field: [Type of payment] to [relationship]

For example
Maintenance payment to wife
Savings for brother

5. Exports payments after shipment: not to Nepal or Bhutan

What to enter in the payment detail field: Export payment / invoice reference number / shipment date [DD.MM.YY] / description of goods or services

For example
Export payment / invoice 12456NT / Shipment 11.12.17 / Car parts
Export payment / invoice 21Nov-1231 / Shipment 11.12.17 / 1000 paintbrushes

6. Exports advance payments: not to Nepal or Bhutan

What to enter in the payment detail field: Export payment, invoice number, shipping date [future day, month, year], description of goods or services

For example
Export payment, invoice number 521856P, to be shipped on 12 June 2022, Car parts
Export payment, invoice number 157XT, to be shipped on 28 September 2021, 1000 paintbrushes

7. Loan payment

This is only for individuals, and you’ll need to provide loan details.

What to enter in the payment detail field for loans to relatives: Loan to [relative], loan maturity (must be more than one year and interest free), loan amount and currency.

For example
Loan to brother, loan maturity 2 years, no interest, loan amount USD2000

What to enter in the payment detail field for loans to non-relatives: Payment purpose, from [your status] (non-resident Indian or person of Indian origin), loan maturity (must be less than three years), interest rate (must be less than 2% above bank rate), loan amount and currency.

REM status

• NRI - Non-Resident Indian
• PIO - Person of Indian Origin
• OCI - Overseas Citizen of India
• Foreign national

For example
Loan to John Smith, from non-resident Indian, loan maturity 2 years, interest rate 1.9%, loan amount USD2000

8. Salary payment: to employees

Salary payments can only be sent to an individual from the employer.

What to enter in the payment detail field: Salary for [payee name] for [period]

For example 
Salary for John Smith for June 2020
Salary for Joan Smyth for July to September 2020

9. Office maintenance: include UIN

Payments not including the Unique Identification Number (UIN) will be unsuccessful. UINs are allotted by the Reserve Bank of India in 12 alphanumeric characters.

What to enter in the payment detail field: Offices in [location], UIN or maintenance expense, invoice number, invoice date [DD.MM.YY]

For example
Office maintenance expenses in Pune, UIN AHLO15874859B, invoice number A923B3, invoice date 01.01.20

10. Travel: bookings

What to enter in the payment detail field: Travel for [reason] from [origin] to [destination], invoice number and invoice date [DD.MM.YY]

For example
Travel for sightseeing holiday from London to India, invoice number 867923, invoice date 19.10.20
Travel for business from Jaipur to London, invoice number A923B3, invoice date 18.11.20

11. Reimbursement: of expenses

This is for reimbursing business expenses incurred by employees. It can only be sent to an individual from an employer.

What to enter in the payment detail field: Purpose of payment

For example
Employee expenses for business travel from New Delhi to London

12. House maintenance: payment to caretaker

This can only be sent to an individual.

What to enter in the payment detail field: Purpose of payment to [relationship to you]

For example
Payment for housekeeping to employee

13. Foreign direct investment: details required

What to enter in the payment detail field: [Purpose of payment] to [investee name], beneficiary contact details [name, telephone number, email]. Please use ‘AT’ as an alternative to @ in the beneficiary email address.

For example
Purchase of fresh equity with John Smith co., beneficiary contact details – John Smith, +911234567890, johnsmithATemail.com

14. Legal fees: details required

What to enter in the payment detail field: [Purpose of payment] invoice number, invoice date [DD.MM.YYYY], tel [phone number]

For example
Payment for legal advice, invoice number 4392987, invoice date 18/05/2018, tel +91 1234567890

15. Corporate payments: include nature of goods or services

Payments will be rejected if there isn’t a clear purpose for the payment.

What to enter in the payment detail field: Nature of service, invoice number and invoice date [DD.MM.YYYY]

For example
Software development work, invoice number 4392987, invoice date 18.05.2018
Bookkeeping services, invoice number H56884, invoice date 16.09.2020

Purchasing property

Please note, this isn’t an available purpose of payment in Online Banking, but you can use this as a purpose of payment in our branches.

If you’re a non-resident Indian or person of Indian origin, you can purchase immovable property in India – excluding agricultural, plantation and farm houses.

If you’re a citizen of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, China, Iran, Nepal, Bhutan, Macau or Hong Kong, you’ll need prior approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) before acquiring immovable property.

If you’re a foreign national of another country, you can acquire immovable property (only on lease for up to five years) without needing RBI approval.

What to enter in the payment detail field: Purpose of payment / type of property <XXXX> / REM status <REM status> / nationality of REM <nationality>

For example
House purchase / type of property residential / REM status NRI / nationality of REM Indian