New Delhi: With no opposition, Rajya Sabha unanimously passed the Foreign Contribution (Amendment) Bill, 2020 on Wednesday. Replying to debate on the bill, Minister of State for Home Affairs said the bill is not against those NGOs doing good work.
Responding to S. R. Balasubramoniyan of AIADMK, MoS Home said, "the bill is not against any NGO and it is an effort to maintain transparency. This amendment is in the interest of good NGOs which want to do good work in the country."
"FCRA Bill, 2020 is a law for national and internal security and its main motive is to ensure that foreign funds don't dominate the political and social discourse of the country," Nityanand Rai added.
Under the FCRA Bill, 2020, the office bearers of the NGOs will have to provide the Aadhaar numbers for registration and public servants will be barred from receiving funds from abroad. The bill states that foreign contribution must be received only in an account designated by the bank as an FCRA account as notified by the central government.
During the debate, Balasubramoniyan said the bill shouldn't be used to antagonise the political parties. "The government should assure us this won't happen, that political opponents won't be targeted. There may be some bad NGOs, but the majority are genuine NGOs doing good work. Such NGOs should not be bulldozed," he said.
Initiating the discussion, BJP MP Arun Singh said this bill was much needed as several NGOs are misusing the foreign fund for spreading their religious propaganda. "Some NGOs are using such funds for forced conversions, like in Kerala," he added.
Replying to a discussion on the bill, Minister of State for Home Affairs said my experiences that many organisations attempted to hide their identity and it was successful in doing that. The reason behind this is that they had no fear because their identity wasn't established completely. So Aadhaar Card has been brought in to establish their identity.
Also read: Neither against NGOs nor against any religion, MoS Home Nityanand Rai clarifies on FCRA Bill
The Voluntary Action Network India (VANI), an apex body of Indian voluntary organisations, head on Monday issued a statement and demanded that the FCRA Bill 2020, be sent to a select or standing committee of Parliament for scrutiny.
VANI had said the amendments assume that all NGOs receiving foreign grants were guilty unless proven otherwise. It stated that the Bill would be a death blow to the development relief, scientific research and community support work of the NGO community as it prohibits collaboration with other Indian organisations.
As per FCRA Bill 2020, foreign contribution can now be received only in an account designated by the bank as "FCRS account" in a branch of the State Bank of India, New Delhi (as notified by the central government). No funds other than the foreign contribution should be received or deposited in this account.
Earlier, recipients of foreign grants could use 50% of the contribution for meeting administrative expenses, but the amended bill reduces this limit to 20%.
According to the government, the annual inflow of foreign contribution has almost doubled between 2010 and 2019 but many NGOs/ associations have not utilised the funds for the declared purpose.
