The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has, for the first time, explicitly listed reasons for refusing the approval required by the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act to receive foreign funding. These include engaging in anti-development activities and religious conversions, maliciously encouraging protests, and having ties to extreme organizations.
Following a request for clarification from multiple NGOs regarding the grounds behind the denial of their FCRA approval, the ministry announced that it is issuing “consolidated reasons.” It’s true that the ministry hasn’t named the NGOs or provided a list of justifications.
According to some of the associations’ representation of the government, it is unclear why their application was rejected. For the advantage of applicant associations, it has been determined to share the combined justifications for rejecting renewal and registration applications after the issue has been reviewed. The ministry stated in a statement released on November 8 that an illustrative list of the reasons why renewal and registration applications are denied has been tallied.
The home ministry revoked the Center for Policy Research’s (CPR) FCRA license earlier this year due to allegations of breaking the foreign funding regulations. Church of North India-Synodical Board of Social Service (CNI-SBSS), Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), Indo-Global Social Service Society (IGSSS), Church Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), and Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFOI) were among the five NGOs whose licenses were revoked in March.
The ministry added in the note that other grounds for denial of clearance include failure to disclose information on application forms, ongoing legal action against any NGO office bearers, if a field investigation shows that the NGO has not engaged in reasonable activities for two to three years, failure to provide explanations, and absence of details of the addresses of office bearers or members.
According to the notice, the MHA has the authority to deny an application for renewal if it determines that the organization has not used the funds it has received over the last five years in accordance with its goals and objectives, if annual returns are not uploaded, or if financial papers show any discrepancies.
As of right now, 16,023 NGOs hold FCRA licenses, while 20,711 organizations have had their licenses revoked, according to MHA statistics. Since 2020, the Center has increased its oversight of NGOs under the FCRA. In 2022, it accused the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) and Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) of breaking the law and revoking their licenses.
To determine if foreign funding regulations were being followed, the MHA’s FCRA unit conducted audits and inspections of at least 335 NGOs and groups that were either registered or had been given prior approval under the FCRA between 2019 and 2022. The September 2020 amendment to the FCRA prohibited foreign funding for public servants and required Aadhaar for all NGOs’ office holders. Organizations were also prohibited by the new statute from using more than 20% of foreign funds for administrative purposes. It was 50% before.
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