MHA imposes Rs 80 lakh fine on managing committee of Mahabodhi Temple for FCRA violation

The managing committee of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya has been asked to pay a fine of Rs 80 lakh for not renewing FCRA registration and filing annual return of foreign exchange donations. The MHA had issued a notice last year informing that the returns had not been paid from 2017 to 2022. But, the temple committee ignored the notice at that time.

Gaya (Bihar): The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has imposed a fine of Rs 80 lakh on the Bodh Gaya Temple Managing Committee (BTMC) for allegedly violating norms of the Foreign Currency Regulation Act (FCRA) in not filing return of foreign exchange donations and renewing its registration.

The MHA has directed BTMC to deposit the fine immediately. A similar notice was issued to the committee in 2022 stating that annual returns have not been filed between 2017 and 2022.

Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya receives a huge amount of foreign currencies as donations. The temple draws a large number of Buddhist devotees from across the world. There is an influx of foreign tourists throughout the year. Thus, the foreign currency donations are worth crores of rupees every year.

Due to non renewal of the FCRA registration, the BTMC is unable to accept foreign currency donations. This will pose a major problem for the committee as the influx of foreign tourists to Bodh Gaya increases in November.

According to sources a similar notice was sent to BTMC by MHA last year for not filing return of foreign exchange donations between 2017 and 2022. But, the notice was not taken seriously by the committee.

BTMC president and district magistrate Thyagarajan SM said that the fine has been imposed to the committee for not filing the annual return from 2017 to 2022 under FCRA.

"As BTMC is an autonomous institute it is exempted from filing annual returns. On the basis of the exemption, application letters were sent to waive off the returns. However, MHA did not approve the application letter and instead asked BTMC to pay a fine of Rs 80 lakh in order to renew the FCRA registration," he said.