Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010

Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010
State Emblem of India
Parliament of India
An Act to consolidate the law to regulate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by certain individuals or associations or companies and to prohibit acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activities detrimental to the national interest and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
Enacted by Rajya Sabha
Date passed 19 August 2010
Enacted by Lok Sabha
Date passed 27 August 2010
Date assented to 26 September 2010
Date commenced 1 May 2011
Legislative history
Bill introduced in the Rajya Sabha The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Bill, 2006
Bill published on 18 December 2006
Committee report Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs One hundered and thirty fourth report on The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Bill, 2006
Status: In force

The Foreign Contribution (regulation) Act, 2010 is an act of the Parliament of India, by the 42nd Act of 2010. It is a consolidating act whose scope is

to regulate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality by certain individuals or associations or companies and to prohibit acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activities detrimental to the national interest and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto."[1]

It is designed to correct shortfalls in the predecessor act of 1976.

Assent

It received presidential assent on 26 September 2010.

Controversies

A number of NGOs receiving foreign funding are seen by the India's central government as involved in anti-development activism and hence posing a negative impact on the economic growth by two to three per cent. An Intelligence Bureau report titled ‘Impact of NGOs on Development,’ claims the NGOs and their international donors are also planning to target many fresh economic development projects.[2]

For Instance, it was alleged that “US based NGOs are financing the protests against Kundankulam Nuclear Power Plant.[3] India's Home ministry got in action, bank accounts of some NGOs were frozen after it was found that they were diverting money received from their donors abroad into funding protests at the Kudankulam plant.

Home ministry has cancelled some more registrations including top 8 national educational institutions such as –Jawaharlal Nehru University, IIT-Kanpur and Jamia Milia Islamia saying that these institutes are not maintaining proper FCRA account.[4] So, unless their registrations are restored, these institutions cannot receive contributions from abroad.

The Union Home Ministry has cancelled renewal of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licences of Greenpeace India and two NGOs run by activist Teesta Setalvad who is an Indian civil rights activist and journalist. She is the secretary of Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP), an organisation formed for fighting for justice for the victims of communal violence in the state of Gujarat in 2002. CJP is a co-petitioner seeking a criminal trial of Narendra Modi, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat and the current Prime minister of India and sixty-two other politicians and government officials for complicity in the Gujarat violence of 2002 and whose names did not figure in any of the FIRs /charge sheets that formed the subject matter of the various Session Trials regarding the riots at that point of time.

In September 2015, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) cancelled the FCRA registration of Greenpeace India, making impossible any foreign donation to Greenpeace India. The measure was said to have been executed on the grounds of “prejudicially affecting the public interest and economic interest of the state.”[5]

Recently, another NGO Compassion International had to shut down India operations after the government refused permission to accept foreign funding.[6] Earlier, Compassion International was put on the “watch list” by the Home Ministry amid reports by security agencies that it was funding unregistered Indian NGOs which were accused of encouraging religious conversions. The Obama administration as well as the Trump administration pursued the case in the highest level amid the risk of a diplomatic tussle.[7]

At the 2017 “peer review” by the UN Human Rights Council held at Geneva, Indian government faced tough questioning by fellow nations. The attack on the FCRA act came from nearly a dozen countries, mostly from Europe. The charge was led by the U.S. and Germany, who called the Act and the government’s actions “arbitrary”.[8]

See also

  • FCRA 2013

References

  • The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. Universal Law Publishing.
  • Commercial's Law Relating to Foreign Contributions in India: Based on New the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. Commercial Law Publishers (India). 2011.
  1. ↑ "The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010" (PDF). fcraonline.nic.in.
  2. ↑ PTI. "NGOs stance on development projects to hit growth: IB". The Hindu. Retrieved 2017-05-07.
  3. ↑ Doshi, Vidhi (2016-06-06). "The lonely struggle of India's anti-nuclear protesters". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-05-07.
  4. ↑ Menon, Sreelatha (2012-10-08). "New FCRA rules leave NGOs fuming". Business Standard India. Retrieved 2017-05-07.
  5. ↑ Singh, Vijaita. "Greenpeace India's registration cancelled". The Hindu. Retrieved 2017-05-07.
  6. ↑ Singh, Suhasini Haidar, Vijaita. "Compassion International to shut down India operations". The Hindu. Retrieved 2017-05-07.
  7. ↑ Safi, Michael (2017-02-03). "Christian charity set to withdraw from India after funding blocked". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-05-07.
  8. ↑ Haidar, Suhasini. "U.S., Germany slam India for new funding norms". The Hindu. Retrieved 2017-05-07.
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