New Delhi, January 2, 2022: Nearly 6,000 NGOs including the likes of Oxfam India, Jamia Millia, Tuberculosis Association of India will no longer be able to receive new foreign funds or utilise the existing foreign funds for their social work as their FCRA registration has ceased to exist on January 1, 2022.
The big upset in the social sector has come at a time when the NGOs and other social sector organisations are expected to step-up their efforts towards participating in fight against COVID pandemic yet again amid the exponential spread of new COVID variant Omicron across India.
FCRA registration is a mandatory requirement to receive foreign funds.
New foreign funds stopped; Utilisation barred for existing foreign funds
According to the government laws, in case of refusal of the application for renewal of the FCRA certificate of registration, the validity of the certificate is ‘deemed to be expired’ on the date of refusal of the application of renewal. In such cases, the association is not eligible either to receive the foreign contribution or utilise the foreign contribution received.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the NGOs whose FCRA registrations have ceased to exist will not be able to receive foreign funds as either they did not apply to renew their registration, or the government refused to sanction their applications.
The development came days after the central government refused renewal of FCRA registration of the Kolkata-based NGOs Missonaries of Charity for receiving funds from abroad. The organisation runs more than 240 homes for orphans, the destitute and AIDS patients across India. The home ministry had said that Missionaries of Charity’s application was refused for failing to meet the eligibility conditions under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act 2010 and Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules 2011.
Extension of FCRA validity till March 31, 2022
However, a day earlier, On December 31, 2021, the home ministry had extended the FCRA registration validity by three months for those NGOs whose certificates were expiring between September 29, 2020 and March 31, 2022.
This means that the FCRA registrations of such organisations will remain valid till March 31, 2022, or till the date of disposal of the renewal application, whichever is earlier, the ministry said in an order.
“All FCRA registered associations are therefore advised to take note of the fact that in case of refusal of the application for renewal of certificate of registration, the validity of the certificate shall be deemed to have expired on the date of refusal of the application of renewal and the association shall not be eligible either to receive foreign contribution or utilise the foreign contribution received,” the MHA notice said.
However, only those NGOs whose renewal requests have not been refused, or who have applied within six months of the expiry date of their registrations will get the benefit, the ministry said.
In an order issued on December 31, 2021, the ministry stated, “…the Central Government, in public interest, has decided to extend validity of FCRA registration certificates up to March 31, 2022 or till the date of disposal of the renewal application.” It added two conditions- the FCRA registration certificates of such entities is expiring between September29, 2020 – March 31, 2022 and that they have applied/apply for renewal on FCRA portal before expiry of certificate of registration. As per FCRA rules, an NGO has to apply for renewal within six months of expiry.
The nearly 6,000 NGOs whose registrations ceased on January 1, 2022 did not meet either of the criteria.
According to the Ministry of Home Affairs website related to FCRA, registration for a total of 5,933 organisations “deemed to cease”, according to The Hindu. Till Friday, the total number of active FCRA organisations on the website was 22,762, which on January 1, 2022 stood at 16,829 only.
The government had earlier given a relief up to September 30 to NGOs whose registration was expiring between September 29, 2020-September 30, 2021 to apply for a renewal. Later, the deadline was extended till December 31.
After the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act 2020, FCRA rules have become more stringent with government keeping a close tab on the source of funding. The new rules mandates that each FCRA NGO has to compulsorily open an 'FCRA account' in SBI, Main Branch, New Delhi for initial remittance/receipt of foreign contribution (FC) from a foreign source.
Prior to the enactment of The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Act 2020, exclusive FCRA bank accounts could be opened in any branch of scheduled banks.
