NGO Consultant

NGO Consultant
Odisha NGO Consultancy Services

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Ministry of Home Affairs cancels FCRA licences of 8,975 associations

NEW DELHI: In yet another massive crackdown on NGO's and associations accepting foreign funds without complying with the regulation of filing annual returns, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licences of 8,975 associations from different parts of the country including delhi, Mumbai and Andhra Pradesh. This is the largest ever cancellation order with more than 12,000 NGO registered with home ministry.

In its order signed by under secretary Anand Joshi, the Home Ministry states, "no replies have been received from 8975 associations." Among the associations who licenses were cancelled include Don Bosco School Damra in Assam, Osmania University in Hyderabad and Bethel Church association in Bihar besides many other christian NGO. As per the order, "the home ministry had issued notices to 10343 associations all over India for not filing mandatory annual returns in FC-6 form for the period 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011 and 2012." 

Under section 18 of FCRA, 2010, every person who has been granted a certificate under this act shall give for every financial year beginning 1st of every April within nine months of the closure of the financial year, to the secretary at the Ministry of Home Affairs. The information is sent in form FC-6 mentioning the amount of each foreign contribution received, the source from which and manner in which such foreign contribution was received and the purposes for which and manner in which such foreign contribution was received and the purposes for which and manner in which such contribution was utilised by it. 

The Home Ministry had issued notices to these organisations in October last year through speed post asking why the registration under FCRA not be cancelled for non-filing of returns, giving them 30 days from the date of the notices to reply. However, only 229 associations replies to the show cause notices which were then examined on case to case basis. The remaining 8975 associations also include 510 associations to whom notices were sent but returned undelivered and 632 institutions from whom no reply has been received within the stipulated period. 

Earlier, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had suspended the FCRA licenses of Greenpeace on the ground that the NGO was violating the various provision of FCRA and was also engaing in financing Indian NGO which were filing writ petitions. Recently, the foreigners division of the home ministry also put Ford Foundation,, another reputed NGO on the prior permission list. This means that all its funds coming into India will first have to be scrutinized and cleared by the home ministry.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/ministry-of-home-affairs-cancels-fcra-licences-of-8975-associations/articleshow/47072906.cms