Everything You Need to Know About the FCRA

The Foreign Contribution Amendment (Regulation) Bill and the FCRA

On 20 September 2020, The Foreign Contribution Amendment (Regulation) Bill was presented in the Lok Sabha. The Bill corrects the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, (FCRA) 2010. The Act directs the acknowledgment and usage of foreign donations by people, affiliations, and organizations. Foreign contribution by definition is the donation of any money, security, or article (of past a predetermined worth) by an international source.

Under the FCRA, certain people are precluded to acknowledge any international donation. These include political candidates and parties, Newspaper Distributors / Editors, judges, government workers, individuals from any lawmaking body, among others. The Bill has added public servants (as characterized under the Indian Penal Code) to this rundown. Public servant incorporates any individual who is in assistance or pay of the government or compensated by the government authority for the presentation of any public obligation.

FCRA expresses that an individual may acknowledge foreign contribution if they have: (i) acquired a testament of enrollment from the government, or (ii) not enrolled, however, got earlier authorization from the government. Any individual looking for enlistment or earlier authorization for getting foreign donations should make an application to the government in an endorsed way.

The Bill adds that any individual looking for registration, enlistment or re-registration should give the Aadhaar number of all its office conveyors as an ID archive. If there should arise an occurrence of an outsider, they should give a duplicate of the visa or the Overseas Citizen of India card for ID.

Under the FCRA, foreign donations can’t be moved to some other individual except if such individual is additionally enrolled to acknowledge foreign donations (or has gotten earlier consent under the Act to acquire it). The Bill changes this to deny the transfer of donation to some other individual. The term ‘individual’ under the Act incorporates an individual, an affiliation, or an enrolled organization.

Under the Act, an enlisted individual should acknowledge foreign contribution just in a single branch of a bank indicated by them. They may open more records in different banks for the usage of the commitment. The Bill revises this to express that the donation should be received uniquely in a record assigned by the bank as an “FCRA account” in such part of the State Bank of India, New Delhi, as told by the local government.

The government decided to go with SBI as it has branches almost everywhere in the country. No funds other than the donation ought to be gotten or kept in this record. The individual may open another FCRA account in any planned bank of their choice for keeping or using the contribution. NGOs can visit their nearest SBI branch to apply.

Under the Act, if an individual accepting the donation is seen as blameworthy of violating any norms of the Act or the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976, the unutilized or unreceived donation, can be used only by prior permission from the government. 

Under the Act, an individual who gets the contribution should utilize it just for the reason for which the commitment is gotten. Further, they should not utilize over half of the commitment for meeting managerial costs. The Bill diminishes this cutoff to 20%. Therefore the recipient shouldn’t be utilizing more than 20% of the received amount for managerial costs.

Under the Act, each individual who has been given an authentication of enlistment should renew the endorsement within a half year of termination. The Bill gives that the public authority may direct a request before restoring the authentication to guarantee that the individual making the application: (I) isn’t invented (ii) has not been arraigned or sentenced for making communal tension or enjoying exercises focused on religious conversion, and (iii) has not been seen as liable of redirection or misuse of assets, among others conditions.

The Bill adds an arrangement permitting the government to allow an individual to give up their enlistment declaration. The public authority may do as such if, after an inquiry, it is fulfilled that such individual has not broken any norms of the Act.

The Bill adds that the government may even suspend the enrollment of an individual for a total of 360 days.

The deadline for opening the account was March 31 as fixed in October last year. However, the government has extended the deadline to June 30. 

About the Author: Ishita Jha is a second-year media and communications student at MIC, Manipal. She wants to pursue journalism as a career.