New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Monday passed the amendments to Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 that seek to make Aadhaar mandatory for office bearers of any NGOs to receive foreign funds.
The amendment proposes to include “public servants” in the prohibited category and decrease administrative expenses through foreign funds by an organisation to 20 per cent from 50 per cent earlier.
The Bill was introduced in the House on Sunday. Speaking for the passage of the Bill on behalf of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of State of Home Nityanand Rai said, “There was a need to streamline the provisions of the earlier Act by strengthening the compliance mechanism, enhancing transparency and accountability in the receipt and utilisation of foreign contribution worth thousands of crores of rupees every.” The Minister assured that amendment in the law is “not against any NGO as well as any religion”.
The Minister said, “The annual inflow of foreign contribution has almost doubled between the years 2010 and 2019, but many recipients of foreign contribution have not utilised the same for the purpose for which they were registered or granted prior permission under the said Act.”
Over 58,000 crore foreign funds were received by NGOs registered under the FCRA between 2016-17 and 2018-19. There are around 22,400 NGOs in the country.
On getting clearance from the Rajya Sabha and the President, the amended act will empower the government to ask a violator to not use the funds by holding a “summary inquiry”.