Amended FCRA norms likely to be withheld following pandemic

The Centre may temporarily waive amended provisions of the Foreign Currency Regulation Act for NGOs following the public health emergency and lack of infrastructure. NGOs had requested the home ministry for such a waiver from new FCRA laws for at least six months, said an official. The home ministry is responsible for grant and renewal of FCRA licences and the waiver is likely to be made after May 31, when NGOs apply for licence renewal.

The Centre had amended FCRA and the amended law had come into existence last September. NGOs whose FCRA licences were to be renewed were given time till May 31. The amended FCRA empowers the Centre to hold a ‘summary inquiry’ and order a ‘violator’ not to use the foreign funds. Earlier, it was done only after a person or association was found guilty of violating the Act.

Several philanthropic organisations requested relaxation in downstream use of foreign donations so that medical and logistical aid can be supplied to smaller NGOs in rural and semi-urban areas. “We are aware that several prominent NGOs from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada have also reached out to their counterparts with financial aid in the form of foreign contributions,” the official said.


The home ministry had wanted NGOs registered under FCRA to open an account at a specified branch of SBI by March 31. The limit of administrative expenses was reduced from 50% to 20% and providing Aadhaar numbers of all office-bearers, directors and other key functionaries were made mandatory in the amended law.

In case a person on the NGO board was not an Indian, a copy of the passport or Overseas Citizen of India card has to be provided. The annual inflow of foreign contribution was over Rs 58,000 crore between 2016-17 and 2018-19. Foreign funds can be obtained for cultural, economic, educational, religious or social programmes after seeking permission or FCRA registration. Seventy-eight NGOs were awarded FCRA licenses till March.