FCRA stands for Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. It was originally introduced in 1976 and was subsequently revised in 2010. Concomitant with FCRA is FCRR.Passed in 2011, FCRR provides the rules by which FCRA is enforced.
Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has proposed certain amendments to the FCRR (2011).
The current proposal is to amend a few Rules in FCRR only. The FCRA Act is intact.
Few facts:
The revised annual budget of ISRO is around Rs 6,000 Crore. The total foreign funds received by all FCRA-NGOs per annum is close to Rs 12,000 Crore.
Approximately 22,000 FCRA-NGOs file annual returns (called FC-6) regularly. The amount mentioned above is received by these NGOs.
The recent massive cancellation of registrationsof about 10,000 FCRA-NGOs is independent of the 22,000 FCRA-NGOs mentioned above. These 10,000 FCRA-NGOs did not file annual returns for ALL these years: 2009, 2010, and 2011. Their licenses were cancelled after due process of law was followed.
Salient features of the proposed amendments
1. Electronic procedures (Clause 9):The hardcopy of the Registration is being changed to an electronic one with digitally signed application. A circular for Digital Signed Certificate was already issued on 3 June, 2015. The need for a bank Demand Draft has also been done away with and has been changed to an Electronic Payment Gateway.
2. Reduction in number of Forms: Registration, renewal and Prior Permission forms have been combined to one single form, called FC-3. Consequently, the form for the annual return will no longer be called FC-6. Instead it will be known as FC-4.
3. Transparency Measures:
i. Earlier, only the summary data on receipts and utilisation of foreign contribution by the NGO were asked to be put in public domain. The same was being done by GoI as well. The proposed changes require the NGO to:
Display the audited statement of accounts including Income and Expenditure statement, Receipt and Payment account as well as balance sheet of the previous financial year before January 31st of each year, on its website.
Display details of money received within seven days of its receipt on its website or on a site prescribed by GoI.
ii. Form FC-4 (the new annual return) will now include the Twitter, Facebook handles as well as the mobile number of the FCRA-NGO. Section 5 of FC-4 will include names and other details of the chief functionaries of the FCRA-NGO.
4. Financial Tracking Efficiency: Banks which receive the foreign funds for an NGO have to report the same to GoI within 48 hours of such receipt.
5. Foreign Nationals: FC-3 form has a new table which asks the NGO to provide information on any foreign national (including PIO/OCI card holders) in its Governing body/Executive Committee.
6. National Interest: The proposed FC-3 form contains an Undertaking to be provided by the NGO that their work is not detrimental to national interest, not likely to affect prejudicially public interest and the economic, scientific, security and strategic interests of the country. This is a new addition.
7. List of Purposes: The annual return has an important section in which the amounts received and the purpose for which it is received needs to be mentioned by the FCRA-NGO. Earlier, 56 options were allowed. The proposed FC-4 form contains this list under 3 categories: A) Service Delivery, B) Civil Rights Advocacy and C) Research. Items removed are: Provision of aids such as tricycles, calipers to the handicapped, providing free legal aid/Running legal aid centre, Environmental Programs and Activities other than those mentioned above. While Environmental Programs is out, Climate Change and Issues regarding Natural Resources are new items which have been added. Another important inclusion is Payment of Honorarium to non-employees/staff as part of specific projects. Most of the sub-items within Civil Rights Advocacy and Research were already present within the Purposes list in the earlier version:that is, in FCRR(2011).
Reason for amendment:
1. The electronic procedures were long overdue, and quicker communication from banksis a welcome step. They show the intention of this Government to be quick on their feet.
2. Assuming that the FC-4 returns will be made publicly available on the MHA website (as is the procedure now with the FC-6 returns), the public will finally get to know the actual owners of FCRA-NGOs. India, until now has had a strange situation in that, the ownership details of privately held, for-profit companies are available for public knowledge while that of not-for-profit FCRA-NGOs are not. The proposed transparency measures, to a good extent, intend to redress this:
ii. FC-3 form of FCRA-NGOs must be made publicly available on the MHA website.
3. Within the list of purposes, the one mentioned as "Activities other than those mentioned above" had the largest usage in the past. A huge number of FCRA-NGOs used to mention this item as the purpose for every remittance received from abroad. In FY 2012-2013, analyses indicate that the total foreign funds received by FCRA-NGOs towards "Activities other than those mentioned above" was a whopping Rs 2024 Crore. How can 20 per cent of all foreign funds received by FCRA-NGOs be mentioned to be outside the scope of listed Purposes?
This was a ridiculous and suspicious situation and hence its removal is welcome. FCRA-NGOs who were probably hiding some of their nefarious activities under this loophole will need to choose any of the other defined items listed under the revised Purposes List.
c. A-40, "Digging of bore wells"
A large number of bore wells have been dug in villages by several FCRA-NGOs. analyses of public domain FCRA returns data indicate that Rs 15.40 Crore of foreign money has come in FY 2012-2013 specifically for the digging of bore wells.
Most of these FCRA-NGOs belong to a certain religious persuasion. Such bore (water) wells are in fact advertised as "Jesus water wells" by the foreign donors of these FCRA-NGOs on the websites of the former.
Individual donors in foreign countries are being asked to specifically donate for this cause.
Should the ineptitude of State Governments and/or local administrative bodies be allowed to be exploited by agenda-driven, foreign funded NGOs, bent on causing a demographic change? Should FCRR facilitate such projects?
d. A-19 to A-23, "Construction/repair/maintenance of places of worship" up to "Maintenance for priests/preachers/other religious functionaries"
Church Planting within the 10/40 window is major project which is one of the cornerstones of the Lausanne Movement. Church Planting Movement (CPM) as well as the training of batches of National Pastors have been recognized to be two key methods of achieving a critical demographic change in India by foreign leaders and followers of Evangelical Christianity.
Until now, the predominant route to reach that goal has been to finance FCRA-NGOs. The mushrooming of FCRA-NGOs all over India is a testament to this fact. Given these stated goals of foreign donors (as mentioned in their Annual Tax forms filed in their countries) and the one-to-one relationship between them and their Indian FCRA-NGO franchise, is it prudent on the part of Government of India to ignore such a reality? Are these purposes in FCRR desirable? Are they not detrimental to national interest? Would they not prejudicially affect public interest? National and public interests are explicitly mentioned in FCRA (Clause 9, Page 8 of FCRA) as the basic criteria to be satisfied by a NGO for FCRA registration.
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Source: http://legal.hireca.com/post/why-is-the-fcra-being-modified-does-it-have-anything-to-do-with-the-recent-pil-in-the-delhi-high-court/509
Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has proposed certain amendments to the FCRR (2011).
The current proposal is to amend a few Rules in FCRR only. The FCRA Act is intact.
Few facts:
The revised annual budget of ISRO is around Rs 6,000 Crore. The total foreign funds received by all FCRA-NGOs per annum is close to Rs 12,000 Crore.
Approximately 22,000 FCRA-NGOs file annual returns (called FC-6) regularly. The amount mentioned above is received by these NGOs.
The recent massive cancellation of registrationsof about 10,000 FCRA-NGOs is independent of the 22,000 FCRA-NGOs mentioned above. These 10,000 FCRA-NGOs did not file annual returns for ALL these years: 2009, 2010, and 2011. Their licenses were cancelled after due process of law was followed.
Salient features of the proposed amendments
1. Electronic procedures (Clause 9):The hardcopy of the Registration is being changed to an electronic one with digitally signed application. A circular for Digital Signed Certificate was already issued on 3 June, 2015. The need for a bank Demand Draft has also been done away with and has been changed to an Electronic Payment Gateway.
2. Reduction in number of Forms: Registration, renewal and Prior Permission forms have been combined to one single form, called FC-3. Consequently, the form for the annual return will no longer be called FC-6. Instead it will be known as FC-4.
3. Transparency Measures:
i. Earlier, only the summary data on receipts and utilisation of foreign contribution by the NGO were asked to be put in public domain. The same was being done by GoI as well. The proposed changes require the NGO to:
Display the audited statement of accounts including Income and Expenditure statement, Receipt and Payment account as well as balance sheet of the previous financial year before January 31st of each year, on its website.
Display details of money received within seven days of its receipt on its website or on a site prescribed by GoI.
ii. Form FC-4 (the new annual return) will now include the Twitter, Facebook handles as well as the mobile number of the FCRA-NGO. Section 5 of FC-4 will include names and other details of the chief functionaries of the FCRA-NGO.
4. Financial Tracking Efficiency: Banks which receive the foreign funds for an NGO have to report the same to GoI within 48 hours of such receipt.
5. Foreign Nationals: FC-3 form has a new table which asks the NGO to provide information on any foreign national (including PIO/OCI card holders) in its Governing body/Executive Committee.
6. National Interest: The proposed FC-3 form contains an Undertaking to be provided by the NGO that their work is not detrimental to national interest, not likely to affect prejudicially public interest and the economic, scientific, security and strategic interests of the country. This is a new addition.
7. List of Purposes: The annual return has an important section in which the amounts received and the purpose for which it is received needs to be mentioned by the FCRA-NGO. Earlier, 56 options were allowed. The proposed FC-4 form contains this list under 3 categories: A) Service Delivery, B) Civil Rights Advocacy and C) Research. Items removed are: Provision of aids such as tricycles, calipers to the handicapped, providing free legal aid/Running legal aid centre, Environmental Programs and Activities other than those mentioned above. While Environmental Programs is out, Climate Change and Issues regarding Natural Resources are new items which have been added. Another important inclusion is Payment of Honorarium to non-employees/staff as part of specific projects. Most of the sub-items within Civil Rights Advocacy and Research were already present within the Purposes list in the earlier version:that is, in FCRR(2011).
Reason for amendment:
1. The electronic procedures were long overdue, and quicker communication from banksis a welcome step. They show the intention of this Government to be quick on their feet.
2. Assuming that the FC-4 returns will be made publicly available on the MHA website (as is the procedure now with the FC-6 returns), the public will finally get to know the actual owners of FCRA-NGOs. India, until now has had a strange situation in that, the ownership details of privately held, for-profit companies are available for public knowledge while that of not-for-profit FCRA-NGOs are not. The proposed transparency measures, to a good extent, intend to redress this:
ii. FC-3 form of FCRA-NGOs must be made publicly available on the MHA website.
3. Within the list of purposes, the one mentioned as "Activities other than those mentioned above" had the largest usage in the past. A huge number of FCRA-NGOs used to mention this item as the purpose for every remittance received from abroad. In FY 2012-2013, analyses indicate that the total foreign funds received by FCRA-NGOs towards "Activities other than those mentioned above" was a whopping Rs 2024 Crore. How can 20 per cent of all foreign funds received by FCRA-NGOs be mentioned to be outside the scope of listed Purposes?
This was a ridiculous and suspicious situation and hence its removal is welcome. FCRA-NGOs who were probably hiding some of their nefarious activities under this loophole will need to choose any of the other defined items listed under the revised Purposes List.
c. A-40, "Digging of bore wells"
A large number of bore wells have been dug in villages by several FCRA-NGOs. analyses of public domain FCRA returns data indicate that Rs 15.40 Crore of foreign money has come in FY 2012-2013 specifically for the digging of bore wells.
Most of these FCRA-NGOs belong to a certain religious persuasion. Such bore (water) wells are in fact advertised as "Jesus water wells" by the foreign donors of these FCRA-NGOs on the websites of the former.
Individual donors in foreign countries are being asked to specifically donate for this cause.
Should the ineptitude of State Governments and/or local administrative bodies be allowed to be exploited by agenda-driven, foreign funded NGOs, bent on causing a demographic change? Should FCRR facilitate such projects?
d. A-19 to A-23, "Construction/repair/maintenance of places of worship" up to "Maintenance for priests/preachers/other religious functionaries"
Church Planting within the 10/40 window is major project which is one of the cornerstones of the Lausanne Movement. Church Planting Movement (CPM) as well as the training of batches of National Pastors have been recognized to be two key methods of achieving a critical demographic change in India by foreign leaders and followers of Evangelical Christianity.
Until now, the predominant route to reach that goal has been to finance FCRA-NGOs. The mushrooming of FCRA-NGOs all over India is a testament to this fact. Given these stated goals of foreign donors (as mentioned in their Annual Tax forms filed in their countries) and the one-to-one relationship between them and their Indian FCRA-NGO franchise, is it prudent on the part of Government of India to ignore such a reality? Are these purposes in FCRR desirable? Are they not detrimental to national interest? Would they not prejudicially affect public interest? National and public interests are explicitly mentioned in FCRA (Clause 9, Page 8 of FCRA) as the basic criteria to be satisfied by a NGO for FCRA registration.
Get All your Work Done By Expert visit Hireca.com Or Whats app your Query At : 9873139513 or mail at hi@hireca.com
Source: http://legal.hireca.com/post/why-is-the-fcra-being-modified-does-it-have-anything-to-do-with-the-recent-pil-in-the-delhi-high-court/509
