The Union Home Ministry has amended sure guidelines associated to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) permitting Indians to obtain as much as Rs 10 lakh in a 12 months from kin staying overseas with out informing the authorities.
The earlier restrict was Rs 1 lakh.
In a notification, the house ministry additionally stated if the quantity exceeds, the people will now have 90 days to tell the federal government as a substitute of 30 days earlier.
The new guidelines, Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Rules, 2022, have been notified by the house ministry via a gazette notification on Friday night time.
“In the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 2011, in rule 6, — for the words “one lakh rupees”, the phrases “ten lakh rupees” shall be substituted; and for the phrases “thirty days”, the phrases “three months” shall be substituted,” the notification stated.
Rule 6 offers with intimation of receiving overseas funds from kin.
It said earlier that “any person receiving foreign contribution in excess of Rs 1 lakh or equivalent thereto in a financial year from any of his relatives shall inform the central government (details of funds) within 30 days from the receipt of such contribution”.
Similarly, making modifications in rule 9, which offers with utility of acquiring ‘registration’ or ‘prior permission’ beneath the FCRA to obtain funds, the amended guidelines have given people and organisations or NGOs 45 days to tell the house ministry about checking account (s) which are for use for utilisation of such funds. This time restrict was 30 days earlier.
The central authorities has additionally ‘omitted’ provision ‘b’ in rule 13, which handled declaring overseas funds together with particulars of donors, quantity obtained, and date of receipt, and so on. each quarter on its web site.
Now, anybody receiving overseas funds beneath the FCRA should comply with the prevailing provision of putting the audited assertion of accounts on receipts and utilisation of the overseas contribution, together with earnings and expenditure assertion, receipt and cost account and steadiness sheet for each monetary 12 months starting on the primary day of April, inside 9 months of the closure of the monetary 12 months, on its official web site or on the web site as specified by the Centre.
A provision the place an NGO or a person receiving overseas funds needed to declare such contributions each quarter on its official web site has additionally been achieved away with.
In case of change of checking account, identify, deal with, goals or key members of the organisation (s) receiving overseas funds, the house ministry has now allowed 45 days time to tell it, as a substitute of earlier 15 days.
The house ministry had made the FCRA guidelines more durable in November 2020, making it clear that NGOs which will not be straight linked to a political occasion however interact in political motion like bandhs, strike or street blockades might be thought-about of political nature in the event that they take part in lively politics or occasion politics.
The organisations lined beneath this class embody farmers’ organisations, college students, staff’ organisations and caste-based organisations.
In the amended FCRA, the federal government barred public servants from receiving overseas funding and made Aadhaar obligatory for each office-bearer of NGOs.
The new legislation additionally says that organisations receiving overseas funds won’t be able to make use of greater than 20 per cent of such funds for administrative functions. This restrict was 50 per cent earlier than 2020.
According to the legislation, all NGOs receiving funds should registered beneath the FCRA.
Source: www.financialexpress.com”