New Delhi, June 14, 2023: In relation with violating the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has suspended the FCRA license of Care India. An NGO, CARE India is an entity of CARE International Confederation and has been working in India for nearly 70 years with an objective of ending poverty and social exclusion.
A notice concerning its FCRA cancellation has been served to the NGO which was renewed for a period of 5 years on October 1, 2022.
As per the media reports CARE India Solutions for Sustainable Development (CISSD) received a notice from the ministry of home affairs, as per which CISSD's FCRA registration has been suspended temporarily for a period of 180 days.
However, CARE India has said that it has been committed to serve the nation through its work in the areas of education, healthcare, livelihood and disaster management, and has complied with the regulatory framework.
The NGO believes that the suspension is temporary and will be revoked soon.
According to the auditor’s certificate to CARE India, the NGO received a foreign funding to the tune of Rs 377.5 crore during 2021-22 that was subject to a tax survey under Section 133A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 on September 7, 2022 along with other NGOs like Oxfam India and Centre for Policy Research (CPR).
While Oxfam India’s FCRA license renewal request was rejected last year, Centre for Policy Research’s renewal didn’t get a green nod as well in February this year for violating the FCRA regulations.
Earlier, in 2012-13, CARE India had received a foreign contribution to the tune of Rs 28.3 crore (without a permission from MHA) in a bank account that was meant for local funds. Furthermore, the foreign inward remittance certificate reflects that the NGO received these funds for business, management consultancy and public relations.
In the coming days, the NGO might scale down its operations in the country, however, it’s a wait and watch situation until an official announcement in this regard comes out.
This is not the first time that the FCRA licenses of NGOs are suspended. Earlier, in November 2022 too, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had cancelled the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act license of Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) and Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT).
In 2020 also the FCRA licenses of around 13 NGOs were suspended and bank accounts frozen against similar backdrop. As per the MHA data, from 2011 to 2022, the FCRA licenses of around 20,664 organizations have been cancelled on account of diversion or misuse of the foreign funds or non-submission of the annual returns.
Between 2017 and 2021 only, the government had suspended the FCRA registrations of nearly 6,677 NGOs. Going by the states, the most number of FCRA suspensions were reported from Tamil Nadu with 755 NGOs losing their registrations, followed by 734 in Maharashtra, 635 in Uttar Pradesh, 622 in Andhra Pradesh and 611 in West Bengal.
At present, there are over 50,000 FCRA registered organizations in the country.
When is FCRA registration cancelled?
The MHA and the central government can suspend or cancel the FCRA registration of an NGO (Initially for 180 days) basis multiple reasons including adverse inputs against its functioning, in public interest or violation of the Act. Until a decision is taken against the NGO, it can’t receive any foreign funding or utilize more than 25% of the funds available in the associated bank account without prior permission of the MHA. Once the FCRA registration is cancelled, the association/NGO is not eligible to re-register for 3 years from the date of cancellation. However, the cancellation by the MHA/central government can be challenged in the High Court.
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