FCRA [Foreign Contribution Regulation Act] Renewal is making headlines across the nation. As the renewal process includes the names that has set a benchmark in our society like IIT-Delhi, Indian Medical Association and OxFam to name a few. As per sources these institutions have failed to submit for the renewal of their FCRA license. Ministry of Home Affairs have rejected license of 179 NGOs or associations including MoC [Missionaries of Charity]. That means that these 6000 NGO will not receive any foreign donations from 1st Jan 2022.

FCRA Renewal Details:

All NGOs have to apply for the renewal of their FCRA registration before the expiry of five year validity. The renewal executes in accordance under the Rule 12 of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules 2011. For the renewal all NGOs have to provide the details of their FCRA account in SBI New Delhi branch and the affidavits of office bearers bearing details like Aadhaar number along with a renewal fee amount of Rs 5000.

Ministry of Home Affairs again extends the validity of FCRA licenses expiring between 29 Sep 202 – 31 Dec 2021 to 31st March 2022. This is the third extension of FCRA renewal given by MoHA. The original deadline of 31st May 2021 was first extended to 30 Sep 2021 and then to 31st December 2021. Now at present the extension date is 31st March 2022. This extension is only applicable to those who have already applied for their renewal of FCRA license. But NGOs whose application has been rejected will not get any benefit with this extension. As a result the Mother Teresa Missionaries Of Charity will not receive any foreign donations as of now.

Till now 12989 NGO have applied for renewal of licensing between 30 Sep 2020 – 31 Dec 2021. 5789 NGOs have not applied for licence renewal whereas 5968 NGOs registration ceases on 1st Jan 2022. 179 NGOs renewal rejected by MoHA. As of now total active NGOs with FCRA renewed licence are 16829.

Institutions And NGOs Under Radar Of FCRA :

Many prestigious NGOs and institutions are under the radar of FCRA renewal process. These are IIT-Delhi, Jamia Milia Islamia, Indian Medical Association , India Habitat Centre, Indira Gandhi Centre For Arts, National Foundation For Communal Harmony and many more. Oxfam India and Gere Foundation India Trust are also under the scanner. But as per reports these institutions have not applied for renewal of their FCRA certificates. According to MoHA 18,778 NGOs licence was expiring between 29 Sep 2020 – 31 Dec 2021 and out of these only 12,989 applies for renewal. In addition to this some organization like Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanamae and India Islamic Cultural Centre has shown zero foreign receipt for the year 2020-2021. Whereas, Oxfam have submitted receipt worth 50 crores for the year 2020-2021. Certainly it will be interesting to see the new developments in this arena as how these NGOs will operate with restricted funding.