Compliance
NBFC compliance calendar: what falls due in each month, and where the date comes from
CS Manoj Famra · 2026-10-09 · 8 min read (estimated)
The Reserve Bank does not publish an NBFC compliance calendar. It publishes a periodicity rule, and every date below is derived from it. That matters more than it sounds, because it means you can check any line on this page without trusting the page — and it is why the calendars circulating with pre-2024 dates on them are still circulating. Nobody re-derived them.
The rule everything below comes from
Paragraph 4.4 of the Master Direction — Reserve Bank of India (Filing of Supervisory Returns) Directions, 2024 (RBI/DoS.DSG/2023-24/110, 27 February 2024) sets the deadline by how often a return is due, not by which return it is:
- Weekly — reference date Friday, due "on or before Wednesday of the following week"
- Fortnightly — reference dates the 15th and the last day of the month, due "within 7 days"
- Monthly — reference date month end, due "within 15 days"
- Quarterly — reference date quarter end, due "within 21 days"
- Half-yearly — reference dates 31 March and 30 September, due "within 21 days"
- Yearly — reference date 31 March, due "within 21 days"
Audited returns are due "within 5 working days from the date of signing of the Auditor's report", and the returns in Annex IV have their own timelines which override the above.
That direction repealed the Master Direction — Non-Banking Financial Company Returns (Reserve Bank) Directions, 2016. If a calendar you are holding says a quarterly return is due in 15 days, it predates February 2024.
Two things that make this calendar yours rather than generic
Your layer decides which rows apply to you. Base Layer, Middle Layer and Upper Layer file different returns — see NBFC category and layer. A Base Layer NBFC files DNBS02 and will never file DNBS01 or DNBS03.
Two asset-size thresholds cut across the layers: ₹100 crore for DNBS04A and DNBS04B, and ₹500 crore for the CRILC returns, the fraud returns and the Statutory Auditor Certificate. Below those, the rows simply do not apply.
The year, month by month
Dates are the statutory last day. Where one falls on a holiday, file earlier rather than assuming.
April — the heaviest month
| Date | Falls due | Reference date |
|---|---|---|
| 15 April | DNBS04B (monthly), DNBS08 (CRILC-Main) | 31 March |
| 21 April | Q4 quarterly returns — DNBS01, DNBS02, DNBS03, DNBS04A, DNBS11, DNBS12, DNBS13, DNBS14, FMR-IV as applicable | 31 March |
| 21 April | Half-yearly returns | 31 March |
| 21 April | Yearly returns on the ordinary timeline | 31 March |
| Each Wednesday | DNBS09 (CRILC weekly) | preceding Friday |
April carries the quarterly, the half-yearly and the annual cycle on the same date, because all three share a 31 March reference date and the same 21-day window. It is the month to staff.
May, June
| Date | Falls due | Reference date |
|---|---|---|
| 15 May | DNBS04B, DNBS08 | 30 April |
| 15 June | DNBS04B, DNBS08 | 31 May |
| Each Wednesday | DNBS09 | preceding Friday |
July
| Date | Falls due | Reference date |
|---|---|---|
| 15 July | DNBS04B, DNBS08 | 30 June |
| 21 July | Q1 quarterly returns | 30 June |
| Each Wednesday | DNBS09 | preceding Friday |
August, September
| Date | Falls due | Reference date |
|---|---|---|
| 15 August | DNBS04B, DNBS08 | 31 July |
| 15 September | DNBS04B, DNBS08 | 31 August |
| Each Wednesday | DNBS09 | preceding Friday |
September is crowded for an NBFC for reasons that are not RBI's — the AGM, AOC-4 and MGT-7 under the Companies Act, 2013, DIR-3 KYC, and the tax audit. Those are real and they are not on this calendar, deliberately: see What is not here.
October
| Date | Falls due | Reference date |
|---|---|---|
| 15 October | DNBS04B, DNBS08 | 30 September |
| 21 October | Q2 quarterly returns | 30 September |
| 21 October | Half-yearly returns | 30 September |
| Each Wednesday | DNBS09 | preceding Friday |
November, December
| Date | Falls due | Reference date |
|---|---|---|
| 15 November | DNBS04B, DNBS08 | 31 October |
| 15 December | DNBS04B, DNBS08 | 30 November |
| 31 December | DNBS10 — Statutory Auditor Certificate, outer limit | 31 March |
| Each Wednesday | DNBS09 | preceding Friday |
DNBS10 is the one date on this calendar that is not derived from the periodicity rule. It is an Annex IV return, filed by the statutory auditor, due within 5 working days of the date of signing of the auditor's report under section 134 of the Companies Act, 2013 — and in any case not later than 31 December. So its real due date is set by when your audit is signed, and 31 December is only the backstop. An NBFC whose accounts are signed in September has a September deadline, not a December one.
January
| Date | Falls due | Reference date |
|---|---|---|
| 15 January | DNBS04B, DNBS08 | 31 December |
| 21 January | Q3 quarterly returns | 31 December |
| Each Wednesday | DNBS09 | preceding Friday |
February, March
| Date | Falls due | Reference date |
|---|---|---|
| 15 February | DNBS04B, DNBS08 | 31 January |
| 15 March | DNBS04B, DNBS08 | 28/29 February |
| Each Wednesday | DNBS09 | preceding Friday |
March has no quarterly filing in it. The 31 March reference date falls due in April.
The ones with no date until something happens
| Obligation | Timeline |
|---|---|
| FMR-I — actual or suspected fraud | Within three weeks of the date of detection |
| FMR-III — update to FMR-I | Immediately, on a progress update |
| Form A Certificate — auditor appointment | Within one month of the date of appointment |
| DNBS13 — overseas investment | Quarterly, and a NIL return is required where there are none |
DNBS13 belongs in this list as much as in the quarterly one, because an NBFC with no overseas investment often does not realise it has a quarterly filing at all.
What is not here, and why that is deliberate
Companies Act, income tax and GST filings. AOC-4, MGT-7, DIR-3 KYC, the AGM, TDS returns, GSTR-3B. Every one is a real obligation and not one of them is RBI's. Calendars that merge the two leave the impression that the Reserve Bank sets the AGM date, and a compliance officer who inherits that impression will eventually explain it to an inspecting officer.
Deposit-taking obligations. This is the non-deposit-taking position.
Housing Finance Companies. HFCs are excluded from the NBFC category in the 2024 Directions. Nothing here applies to them.
Credit information reporting to the CICs. It belongs on a compliance calendar and it is not in the Supervisory Returns Directions — it sits under the Credit Information Companies (Regulation) Act, 2005 and the directions under it, and the Reserve Bank tightened its cadence in 2024. I have not verified the current cadence from primary text for this page, so rather than print a date I cannot stand behind: check it directly. It is the line most often stale in circulating calendars.
On sourcing, plainly
The periodicity rule, the scope and the repeal were read from the Reserve Bank's own Master Directions page. The return list and the applicability thresholds were read from a verbatim reproduction of Annex III, not from the Reserve Bank's PDF. They agree with the primary page everywhere the two overlap. Before you rely on a threshold to decide whether a return applies to you, open Annex III and read the row.
And the obvious caution: this page was written on 9 October 2026. Every direction cited carries its own date, so you can tell what has had time to change.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Reserve Bank publish an NBFC compliance calendar?
No. It publishes a periodicity rule — paragraph 4.4 of the 2024 Supervisory Returns Directions — and every date on a calendar is derived from it. That is why calendars carrying pre-2024 dates are still in circulation: nobody re-derived them.
Which month is heaviest for an NBFC's RBI filings?
April. The quarterly, half-yearly and annual cycles all share a 31 March reference date and the same 21-day window, so they fall due together on 21 April.
When is the Statutory Auditor Certificate actually due?
Within five working days of the date of signing of the auditor's report under section 134 of the Companies Act, 2013, and in any case not later than 31 December. So an NBFC whose accounts are signed in September has a September deadline; 31 December is only the backstop.
Why are the AGM and AOC-4 not on this calendar?
Because they are not RBI's. They are Companies Act obligations and they are real, but a calendar that merges the two leaves the impression that the Reserve Bank sets the AGM date.
Related: NBFC compliance checklist · RBI returns for NBFCs: which return, who files it · NBFC returns calendar tool
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