{"id":3554,"date":"2024-11-13T04:40:12","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T23:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=3554"},"modified":"2025-03-26T16:25:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-26T10:55:23","slug":"foreign-contribution-regulation-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/foreign-contribution-regulation-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Contribution Regulation Act"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>About Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a law enacted by Parliament to <strong>regulate foreign contributions<\/strong> (especially monetary donations) provided by certain individuals or associations <strong>to NGOs and others within India.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The FCRA was originally enacted in 1976, and significantly revised in 2010.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The Act falls under the purview of the <strong>Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>\u2018<strong>Foreign Contribution\u2019means<\/strong> the <strong>donation, delivery, or transfer <\/strong>made by any foreign source<strong> of any<\/strong>:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Any article<\/strong> (not being an article given to a person as a gift for his\/her personal use, the market value of which is not more than one lakh rupees);<\/li>\n<li><strong>Any currency,<\/strong> whether Indian or foreign.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Any security,<\/strong> including foreign security.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>This will <strong>also cover:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Contribution received from any person who<\/strong> has <strong>in turn received it from<\/strong> a <strong>foreign source.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Interest accrued on foreign contributions<\/strong> deposited in the bank<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It creates <strong>registration requirements<\/strong> and <strong>spending restrictions<\/strong> on Indian nonprofit organizations receiving foreign donations.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The Act aims to <strong>prevent foreign organisations from influencing<\/strong> electoral politics, social, political, economic, or religious discussions in India for wrong purposes and <strong>activities detrimental to the public interest.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Contributionsmade by <\/strong>a citizen of India living in another country (e.g., a Non-Resident Indian (<strong>NRI)) from his\/her personal savings<\/strong> through the normal banking channels, will <strong>not be treated as foreign contributions<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li><strong>Who can Receive Foreign Contributions? <\/strong>Any person can receive a foreign contribution provided:\n<ul>\n<li>The person has a <strong>definite cultural, economic, educational, religious, or social programme;<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The person must have <strong>obtained FCRA registration<\/strong>\/prior permission from the Central Government and<\/li>\n<li>Person <strong>includes<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>an <strong>individual<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>a <strong>Hindu Undivided Family<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>an <strong>association<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>a <strong>company<\/strong> registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013;<\/li>\n<li>The foreign contribution received has to be <strong>utilised only for the purpose<\/strong> for which it has been received, and <strong>not more than 20%<\/strong> of the foreign contribution received in a financial year <strong>can be utilised to defray administrative expenses<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The FCRA requires every person or NGO seeking to receive foreign donations to <strong>open a bank account for the receipt of foreign funds in the State Bank of India, Delhi.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Registration under FCRA:<\/strong> The FCRA is applicable to all <strong>associations<\/strong>, <strong>groups<\/strong> and <strong>NGOs<\/strong> which intend to receive foreign donations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>It is <strong>mandatory<\/strong> for all such NGOs <strong>to register <\/strong>themselves under the FCRA.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The applicant <strong>should not be fictitious or benami<\/strong> and <strong>should not<\/strong> have been <strong>prosecuted or convicted<\/strong> for indulging <strong>in activities aimed at conversion<\/strong> through inducement or force, either directly or indirectly, <strong>from one religious faith to another.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The registration is <strong>initially valid for five years<\/strong>, and it can be <strong>renewed subsequently<\/strong> if they comply with all norms.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Registered associations can receive foreign contribution <strong>for social, educational, religious, economic, and cultural purposes.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Registration <strong>can be cancelled if an inquiry finds a false statement<\/strong> in the application.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Once the registration<\/strong> of an NGO <strong>is cancelled<\/strong>, it is <strong>not eligible for re-registration for three years.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The <strong>ministry<\/strong> also <strong>has the power to suspend an NGO\u2019s registration for 180 days<\/strong> pending inquiry, and <strong>can freeze its funds.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>All orders<\/strong> of the government can <strong>be challenged in the High Court.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1<\/strong>: What is an NGO?<\/h3>\n<p>A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a group that functions independently of any government. It is usually non-profit. NGOs, sometimes called civil society organizations, are established on community, national, and international levels to serve a social or political goal such as a humanitarian cause or the protection of the environment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>News: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hindustantimes.com\/india-news\/no-fcra-for-ngos-linked-to-conversions-radical-groups-govt-101731350776141.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">No FCRA for NGOs linked to conversions, radical groups: Govt<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act  is a law enacted by Parliament to regulate foreign contributions (especially monetary donations) provided by certain individuals or associations to NGOs and others within India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}