Foreign hospitality permission during abroad visit now online

New Delhi: The process of taking permission by politicians, judges, legislators, government servants and employees for accepting any kind of foreign hospitality during their abroad visit has been made online by the Union Home Ministry.

An order issued by the Home Ministry on Monday said this clause has been incorporated in the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act online services where permission accorded under FCRA, 2010 to accept foreign hospitality should not be construed as equivalent to "administrative clearance" which has to be obtained separately by the person concerned from the competent authority in concerned ministry or department.

These categories were included in 2015 but had since not been part of the online forms. According to the order, foreign hospitality will mean any offer, not being a purely casual one, made in cash or kind by a foreign source for providing a person with the costs of travel to any foreign country or territory with free boarding, lodging, transport or medical treatment.

In case of "emergent medical need" for sudden illness during the visits, foreign hospitality is permitted on the condition that the person receiving it shall intimate the government within one month along with the source, approximate value in Indian rupees, and the purpose for which and the manner in which it was utilised, the order said. "No member of a legislature or office-bearer of a political party or judge or government servant or employee of any corporation or any other body owned or controlled by the government shall, while visiting any country or territory outside India, accept, except with the prior permission of the Central government, any foreign hospitality," it said.

Any such person who wishes to receive foreign hospitality will have to apply to the Central government in electronic form in 'Form FC-2' for prior permission to accept such foreign hospitality, at least two weeks before proposed journey, it said.