Centre cancels FCRA registration of 5 NGOs

: The Union Home Ministry has revoked the registration of five NGOs, citing alleged breaches of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), according to sources on Tuesday. Over the past five years, the Centre has revoked the FCRA licences of more than 6,600 NGOs for legal violations. In total, the FCRA licences of 20,693 NGOs have been cancelled over the past decade. The deregistered NGOs include the CNI Synodical Board of Social Service, Voluntary Health Association of India, Indo-Global Social Service Society, Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action, and Evangelical Fellowship of India. The revocation of their FCRA registration implies that these NGOs are now ineligible to receive foreign contributions and cannot use any existing funds.

Sources indicate that the home ministry’s decision to cancel the NGOs’ FCRA registration was due to allegations of funds being used for purposes outside their mandate.

The NGOs are accused of engaging in activities that contravene the FCRA provisions.

As of July 17, 2023, there were 16,301 NGOs holding valid FCRA licences.

Parliamentary data from last year revealed that 13,520 FCRA-registered associations or NGOs received Rs 55,741.51 crore in foreign contributions between the 2019-2020 and 2021-2022 fiscal years.