Filing Form C in India

Regulations/Tax Issues
1

Hello everyone,

In India there is something called Form C, which you are (apparently)
supposed to fill out every time you have a foreigner visits. See, for
example, http://boi.gov.in/content/form-c.

This is quite the reporting burden, imo (they even require a passport
photo), but it seems this is something that hotels in India actually
do, as far as I can tell.

However, I’m not sure if Airbnb type renters are required to submit
these forms. I did a Google search in Airbnb India for Form C and
found almost nothing - one listing in Delhi and three in Goa mentioned
submitting it. There are (probably) thousands of Airbnb listings in
India. If a host was submitting such forms, I would expect that fact
to be prominently mentioned on his Airbnb page. So, the question is:
why, if it is required, are not far more people mentioning it?

An Airbnb community group page, namely Hosting in India Airbnb
Group, mentions it a few times.

The information requested is quite invasive - see for example
http://www.bhelbpl.co.in/pnpr-new/pnprsubpage/FORM-C.pdf, or
http://goatourism.gov.in/images/c-form%20goa%20-%20ppt.pdf for a much
more detailed look at the online version, or just google “form c for
foreigners in india” or similar.

The PDF form probably represents an earlier version of the form.
Currently, the form to be filled in is online, and they don’t give
access to it till you register, so I haven’t seen it yet, but it is
probably similar to the presentation at goatourism.gov.in.

I have two concerns:

  1. That having to give all this information to a stranger will freak
    potential guests out. Personally, I wouldn’t be too happy with it
    myself. I’ve certainly never had to fill out any such form in any
    hotel I’ve stayed in.

  2. That the government will use this information as an excuse to
    harass me and/or my guests. The Bombay police and the BMC (the
    municipal corporation that run the city) are not nice people.

I’m imagining them turning up and asking lots of questions about my
rental, and pestering my guests with questions about themselves.
Possibly demanding that I fill up additional forms. That sort of
thing.

It’s not a bad thing to have information about one’s guests. But this
kind of thing is a bit over the top.

So, if any Indian Airbnb hosts happen to read this post, I’d
appreciate it if they could let me know if they submit C forms for
their foreign guests, and if so, whether:

a) They have had negative reactions from their guests.

b) Did any government officials bother them after they registered and
filled up the form?

For obvious reasons, I’m most interested in responses from Bombay.

Comments from non-Indians are welcome.

2

You are right in your concerns. I am looking to see how to work this out. I don’t bother with the form as of now. Just got a guest who was going crazy. Now I am thinking what to do?

3

And I see this post is 2 years old, can. We have an update? Have you figured anything out?

4

Hi @sushill,

First, I assume you are hosting in India, and presumably in India. Nice to “meet” you - there are few Indians here. Would you like to introduce yourself to the good folks on the forum?

I wrote the post you reference in April 2016, before I actually started hosting. It’s not been quite 2 years yet. More like 1 1/2 years.

To answer your question, after some debate I decided to register for this Form C thing, and I’ve been submitting them since last year. It’s kind of a pain, but

a) It’s the law. Not that that means much in India.

b) I think it’s actually in my interest to get as much information about my guests as possible. Bad people aren’t generally keen on giving you their informationi. They’ll probably go somewhere they don’t have to.

c) If something goes horribly wrong with a guest, I’m in a better position if I have reported said guest to the authorities.

For me, (b) was the clinching factor. And as regards my concerns (1) and (2),

  1. So far my guests haven’t been too concerned about it - at least they have given me the information, and most of the time they fill in the form themselves. Though from comments, they aren’t too happy about it, at least some of the time. But most of them come from more law abiding places than India, and then don’t really question doing what the law demands.

On one occasion, it actually came in useful for a guest who needed to register himself - he works in Bombay but he is not an Indian citizen. I don’t exactly know how it was useful for him, though.

  1. I haven’t heard a peep from anyone wrt this form filing yet.

Do tell. Guests Gone Wild is what this forum is all about. More details, please.