On Wednesday The Rajya Sabha passed an FCRA Bill without opposition, The organisations receiving foreign funds will have to make their registration using Aadhaar making it mandatory for the registration, and also to give the government powers the right to stop the utilisation of foreign funds by an organisation through a “summary enquiry”.
The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020, which seeks for a change to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, 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 prior.
“The Bill ensures that the NGO has to open mandatory an account in the SBI FCRA branch to receive funds and then one more account to another bank of choice, for this they don’t have to travel to Delhi but the nearest SBI account will facilitate the opening of an account in New Delhi,” said Minister of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai.
It has likewise tried to disallow any transfer of foreign contribution to any other affiliation or individual. Amendment of section 17 of the Act has been sought to provide that each individual who has been granted a certificate or earlier authorization under segment 12 will get foreign contribution just in a record assigned as ‘FCRA Account’.
There was a need to smooth out the provisions of the earlier Act by strengthening the compliance system, enhancing the transparency and accountability in the receipt and use of foreign contribution worth thousands of crores of rupees consistently and facilitating genuine non-governmental associations or affiliations who are working for the government assistance of the general public.
He gave an example of the amendments made in 2010 when administrative costs were decreased to 50 per cent, at that point additionally a demand was made to diminish it up to 10 per cent. He said P. Chidambaram had then referenced that 10,000 crores of the foreign contribution aren’t even evaluated.
The Minister said the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 was enacted to direct the acknowledgement and usage of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by specific people or affiliations or organizations and to deny acknowledgement and use of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any exercises unfavourable to the public intrigue.
Criminal investigations additionally must be initiated against many such non-legislative associations which indulged in misappropriation or mis-utilisation of foreign contribution, he said. Looking to alter provision (c) of sub-section (1) of segment 3 of the Act, the legislature has proposed to incorporate “local officials” inside its ambit, to give that no foreign contribution will be accepted by them.
Earlier, it was limited to Legislators, election candidates, journalists, print and broadcast media, judges, government workers or representatives of any partnership or some other body controlled or possessed by the administration.
