Jamia, Oxfam and thousands of NGOs lose foreign funding permit

New Delhi, Jan 01: The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) Registration of around 6,000 NGOs has ended from January 1. Many of these NGOs have not renewed their application while in some cases the Ministry of Home Affairs has refused to renew their application.

Among the several NGOs whose registration has not been renewed are Oxfam Trust, Jamia Milia Islamic, Indian Youth Centres Trust and Tuberculosis Association of India.

The FCRA registration is mandatory to receive foreign funds and on December 31 the MHA had extended the validity till March 31 2022. This was however subject to the condition that the renewal request has not been refused by the MHA or the NGO applied within the expiry date of 6 months.

The updated list of NGOs whose registrations was deemed to seize had names of 5,933 NGOs.

As per the norms, all NGOs are required to apply for the renewal of their FCRA registration before the expiry of the five-year validity of their licences. This is in accordance of Rule 12 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 2011.

On Friday, the MHA made it clear that only those NGOs who had already applied for renewal of their FCRA licence expiring between September 29 2020 and March 3 20222 and were awaiting the disposal of their application would benefit from its decision to extend the validity.

NGOs while applying fr FCRA are required to furnish details like Aadhaar number besides paying a fee of Rs 5,000 for renewal.

In December, the renewal application under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) Missionaries of Charity (MoC) was refused on December 25 for not meeting the eligibility conditions under FCRA 2010 and Foreign Contribution Regulation Rules (FCRR) 2011.

The Ministry of Home Affairs aid that no request or revision application has been received from Missionaries of Charity (MoC) for review of this refusal of renewal.

Missionaries of Charity (MoC) was registered under FCRA and its registration was valid October 31 2021. The validity was subsequently extended up-to 31 Dec 2021 along with other FCRA Associations whose renewal application were pending renewal, the MHA also said.

However, while considering the MoC's renewal application, some adverse inputs were noticed. In consideration of these inputs on record, the renewal application of MoC was not approved. The FCRA registration of MoC was valid up-to 31st December 2021. MHA did not freeze any accounts of MoC. State Bank of India has informed that MoC itself sent a request to SBI to freeze its accounts.
The Missionaries of Charity was established by Mother Teresa on October 7 1950. On December 12 the organisation was booked under the Gujarat Freedom of Religion Act 2003 for allegedly hitting Hindu religious sentiments and luring towards Christianity young girls at a shelter home it runs in Vadodara.

"We appreciate the concern of our well-wishers and extend our heartiest greetings for Christmas and the New Year. We would like to clarify that the FCRA registration of the Missionaries of Charity has been neither suspended nor cancelled," the MoC said in a statement.