Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) Card

Let’s start with the discussions about NRI. A person is referred to as a Non-Resident of India, who may not be a resident of India. Then there are PIO cardholders. PIO stands for Persons of Indian Origin. The PIO cardholders need to qualify for some eligibility criteria. This includes the person to be an Indian passport holder or having an Indian spouse. There are PIO cardholders whose spouse isn’t Indian, but the spouse is a person of Indian origin and has a PIO card.  PIO cardholders can also be the people who are now residing outside India but were at some point of time the person of Indian origin. Or otherwise, his/her father-mother or grandfather grandmother, or any other ancestors were the citizens of India. The PIO cardholders may have citizenship in another country. 

NRI (Non Resident Indian)

A person is said to be an NRI if he/she is of Indian origin and lived outside India for the past 183 days or more in a financial year or more than 365 days in the last 4 years. NRI is the one who is living outside India for studies, work, or similar purposes for more than 6 months i.e. 183 days. If an NRI exceeds the basic exemption limit on the capital gains from shares, mutual funds, property rentals, etc. he/she needs to pay tax in India and it is statutory by the Income Tax Department of the Government of India. It doesn’t mean it comes under use only while filing an income tax return. It has much more importance.

For instance, 

• Overseas accounts are offered to them like;

1. Resident Foreign Currency Account: When a person returns to India permanently, after staying abroad for one or more years, he/she maintains a Resident Foreign Currency Account in India.
2. Foreign Currency non-resident Account: Through this type of account, an NRI can make an investment in India in terms of foreign currency and earn tax-free interests. 

• NRI people have their educational quota for getting admission to the top institutions of the country.
• Whatever they earn in the foreign is not taxed in India. 

But there are some limitations too;

• They can’t buy agricultural land in India
• They will be taxed for the income that they will start earning when they come to India as an NRI.
• They need to inform the local police and register Foreigners Regional Registration Officers before coming, which is a portal that maintains the data for the foreigners coming to the country.

PIO cardholders are the ones with some more privileges than a person of Indian origin even after getting citizenship from other countries. This we will discuss in the next section of the article. 

PIO vs NRI

An NRI is important in a way if the person or their ancestors or their spouse do not have nationality or nationality documents of India. When they get the citizenship of a country according to their law and provisions they are still called a person of Indian origin. They can become PIO cardholders after getting citizenship from some other country.PIO cardholders are those whose ancestors are Indian passport holders or Indian spouses, which means that they belonged to a traditional Indian family or became an Indian after marrying the person holding the Indian passport. It is issued to a person whose ancestors were citizens within a short period from the independence of the country to the republic, from the 15th of August to the 26th of January 1950. The people who are a person of Indian origin and own this card have several benefits over NRIs like:

1. They can’t buy agricultural land, but they can buy property here.
2. PIO card holders don’t need any kind of visa for coming back to the country for the next 15 years.
3. They don’t need to inform any local police or register any kind of FRRO (Foreign Regional Registration office)/FRO till 180 days of the stay.
4. They also share the parity of NRIs as they are also given an educational quota in IITs, and IIMs and can avail of financial policies offered here like Life Insurance Corporation.

PIO vs OCI 

OCI stands for Overseas Citizenship of India. It was there before at the time of PIO. OCI is also a kind of VISA. one can come to the country directly with their passport of the residential country and their OCI card. It is also given to the person of Indian origin as they were defined as PIO cardholders. The government has stopped issuing PIO cards for a person of Indian origin. Now the OCI card has become a kind of extension for PIO cardholders. It is also issued to people whose parents or grandparents were Indian citizens between 15 August 1947 and 26 January 1950.

There are some privileges for the people having OCI cards over the PIO card holders such as 

1. PIO card privileges are not lifelong.
2. OCI cardholders don’t need to inform any local police or register any FRRO/FRO before coming. They don’t need to do so even after 180 days’ stay. 

Conclusion 

It is concluded that giving people the status of person of Indian origin helps them to stay connected to the culture of the nation and gives them a sense of belonging. It involved giving people the status of being Indian citizens for 15 years. The provision of lifelong reassurance by making them overseas citizens of India (OCI) was also kept in place. In these territories, nationals of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal are not included.