Fate of around 10,000 NGOs registered with the Union home ministry to receive foreign funding is hanging in the balance as they have yet not been able to comply with the condition of submitting their annual returns for the last five years.
All NGOs need to register themselves with the ministry of home affairs under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) in order to receive foreign funding. All these NGOs are required to file annual details of their income and expenses.
About four years ago, there were around 42,500 NGOs registered under the FCRA. But according to the government, there were only 33,300 NGOs registered under the forex act as on December 31 last year. Their number may come down further.
Last month, the ministry had given as many as 18,523 NGOs one-time opportunity to file their missing annual returns. “But till June 15, only 8267 NGOs managed to submit their returns for the period between 2010 and 2015. For the rest of 10526 NGOs, the ministry is yet to take a final call,” said a home ministry spokesperson.
The official clarified there are 1,549 NGOs, which have not submitted return for even one year, while 2,339, 2,057, 2,079 and 2,239 NGOs have submitted their returns for one, two, three and four years, respectively. “The home ministry will not take a lenient view in this regard,” said the spokesperson. The ministry had given time to the NGOs to submit their returns till June 14.
{{/usCountry}}The official clarified there are 1,549 NGOs, which have not submitted return for even one year, while 2,339, 2,057, 2,079 and 2,239 NGOs have submitted their returns for one, two, three and four years, respectively. “The home ministry will not take a lenient view in this regard,” said the spokesperson. The ministry had given time to the NGOs to submit their returns till June 14.
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