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Polity & Governance
Mahesh

03/07/22 21:18 PM IST

Centre Amends FCRA Rules

In News
  • The Central Government has amended the Foreign Contribution(Regulation) Rules 2011 exempting annual receipts up to Rs 10 lakh from foreign relatives(who are citizens of other countries) from declaration and increasing the time for declaration as three months.
New Amendments
  • The government has also removed a provision wherein an organisation/individual receiving foreign funds had to declare such contributions every quarter on its official website.
  • The new rules — Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2022 — were notified by the ministry of home affairs (MHA) through a gazette notification recently. 
  • “In the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 2011, in rule 6, for the words “one lakh rupees”, the words “ten lakh rupees” shall be substituted; and for the words “thirty days”, the words “three months” shall be substituted,”
  • Rule 6 deals with intimation of receiving foreign funds from relatives. It stated earlier that “any person receiving foreign contribution in excess of one lakh rupees or equivalent thereto in a financial year from any of his relatives shall inform the Central government (details of funds) within 30 days from the receipt of such contribution”.
  • The amended rule now allows relatives to send up to ₹10 lakh without informing the government. If the amount exceeds, the individuals will have three months to inform the government against 30 days earlier.
  • Similarly, making changes in rule 9, which deals with application of obtaining ‘registration’ or ‘prior permission’ under the FCRA to receive funds, the amended rules give individuals and organisations 45 days to inform the MHA about bank account(s) that are to be used for utilisation of such funds. This time limit was earlier 30 days.
  • The Centre has also omitted provision ‘b’ in rule 13, which dealt with declaring foreign funds including details of donors, amount received, and date of receipt every quarter on its website. 
  • The MHA made five more offences under FCRA “compoundable”, making 12 such offences compoundable instead of directly prosecuting the organisations or individuals. Earlier, only seven offences under FCRA were compoundable.

The FCRA violations that have become compoundable now include —
  • failure to intimate about receipt of foreign funds, opening of bank accounts, and failure to place information on website etc.
FCRA Act 
  • The FCRA Act aims at prohibiting acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activities detrimental to the national interest.
  • In September 2020 — the government barred public servants from receiving foreign funding and made Aadhaar mandatory for every office-bearer of the NGOs.
  • The new law also says that organisations receiving foreign funds will not be able to use more than 20% of such funds for administrative purposes. This limit was 50% earlier.
Source- Hindustan Times 

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