One step in right direction:
India News: After introducing a more stringent regime for foreign-funded NGOs and associations with recent amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act,
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
No foreign funds for farmer or student organisations participating in party politics
Bharti Jain / TNN / Updated: Nov 12, 2020, 09:11 IST
NEW DELHI: After introducing a more stringent regime for foreign-funded NGOs and associations with
recent amendments to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010, the
government has now revised the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 2011 to make them stricter.
The rules require all entities seeking
registration or prior permission under FCRA to be in existence for three years and having spent a minimum Rs 15 lakh on its core activities for the benefit of society during the last three financial years.
Importantly, the new rules add a sub-rule to Rule 3, stating that organisations specified under clauses (v) and (vi) of sub-rule 1 -- which cover organisation of farmers, workers, students, caste and community-based organisations not directly aligned to parties but which advance
political interests of such groups, as well as outfits that habitually engage in political action like bandhs, hartal, rasta roko -- shall be considered of political nature if they participate in party politics. Entites of political nature are barred from receiving foreign contributions.
The new rules have also increased the
application fee for grant of registration under FCRA to Rs 5,000 from Rs 3,000, and for grant of prior permission to Rs 10,000 from Rs 5,000; also, the fee to be paid with application for renewal of FCRA registration has also been fixed at Rs 5,000. Such fee should be submitted through a payment gateway. If no application for renewal of registration is received or the application is not accompanied by the requisite fee before the expiry of validity of the certificate of registration, such validity shall be deemed to have ceased from the date of completion of five years from the date of the grant of certificate of registration, as per the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) (Amendment) Rules, 2020 notified on Wednesday.
The Central government, in exceptional cases or in cases where a person is controlled by the Central government or a state government may waive the conditions requiring entities applying for registration/prior permission under FCRA to be in existence for three years and having spent Rs 15 lakh on its core activities aimed at benefit of the society for past three years. If an entity wants inclusion of its existing capital investment in assets like land, building, other permanent structures, vehicles, equipment in the computation of its spending during last three years, then the chief functionary shall give an undertaking that the assets shall be vested henceforth with the person till the validity of the certificate and they shall be utilised only for the activities covered under the Act and the rules made thereunder and shall not be diverted for any other purpose.
A person seeking prior permission for receipt of a specific amount from a specific donor for carrying out specific activities or projects, under the new rules, must submit a specific commitment letter from the donor indicating the amount of foreign contribution and the purpose for which it is proposed to be given. For the Indian recipient and foreign donor organisations having common members, prior permission shall be granted to the person provided the chief functionary of the recipient NGO is not a part of the donor organisation and 75% of the office-bearers or members of the governing body of the NGO are not members or employees of the foreign donor organisation. In case of foreign donor organisation being a single individual that individual shall not be the chief functionary or office bearer of the recipient person; and in case of a single foreign donor, 75% of the office bearers or members of the governing body of the recipient person shall not be the family members or close relatives of the donor.
In the new rules, after rule 9, a new rule 9A shall be inserted to regulate permission for receipt of foreign contribution in application for obtaining prior permission. If the value of foreign contribution on the date of final disposal of an application for obtaining prior permission exceeds Rs 1 crore, the Central government may permit receipt of foreign contribution in such instalments, as it may deem fit: provided that the second and subsequent instalment shall be released after submission of proof of utilisation of 75% of the foreign contribution received in the previous instalment and after field inquiry of the utilisation of foreign contribution.”
The fee to be paid along with application for the compounding of an offence under Section 41 has also been doubled to Rs 3,000 from Rs 1,500 earlier, and shall be submitted electronically.
