Nearly Rs 58,113 crore of foreign contribution received, utilized by associations registered under FCRA: Government

Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai has said that during the last three years, Rs 58,113.51 crore of Foreign Contribution was received and utilized by the associations registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Mr Rai said, the details of Utilized Foreign Contribution by the FCRA registered associations are available online in Annual Returns of respective Association on the FCRA Portal of Home Ministry, www.fcraonline.nic.in.

FCRA registered Associations are required to file their Annual Returns by December 31, 2020, on completion of each financial year. For Financial Year 2019-20, the last date for filing Annual Return is December 31, 2020.

The Registration and Prior permission under The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 is granted to associations or NGOs for 5 types of programmes, religious, social, economic, educational or cultural, as mandated under section 11 of the Act. The associations granted registration or prior permission have to mandatorily submit online the receipt and utilization of Foreign Contribution received by them.

A monitoring unit of FCRA Wing monitors the receipt and utilization of foreign contributions. Methods of monitoring include scrutiny of Annual Returns, inputs from field agencies, on the spot audit and inspection of the accounts of FCRA Associations. Further, in the new system of FCRA monitoring, all annual returns are to be filed electronically.

The Bank accounts of the FCRA registered associations have also been linked to the Public Financial Management System for better monitoring of flow of funds.