5,789 NGOs’ licence under FCRA cancelled as on date, MHA clarifies

New Delhi : The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) clarified on Saturday that only 5,789 NGOs licences to get donations from abroad under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) have been cancelled.

Reacting to reports that over 12,000 non-governmental organisations’ (NGOs) FCRA licences have been revoked for not meeting the renewal criteria, officials in the Home Ministry said this was not correct as only 5,789 licences under FCRA were not renewed.

They also said that these associations did not apply for FCRA renewal despite the reminder of the ministry, so naturally their FCRA licences automatically got cancelled on January 1, 2022.

“Out of the 18,778 NGOs whose FCRA licences were supposed to be renewed between September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2021, only 12,989 associations applied for scrutiny before the competent authority under MHA. Therefore, the authorisation to receive foreign donations for 5,789 NGOs has been cancelled as of now, because of non-renewal of FCRA,” the officials explained.

The officials added that during the process of scrutiny of 12,989 NGOs, 179 were rejected because of non-compliance with the criteria of the amended FCRA provisions.

As on date, there are 16,829 NGOs active with their FCRA valid documents, they further said.

Earlier on Saturday, it was reported that applications for renewal of over 12,000 NGOs, including Oxfam and the Jamia Milia Islamia, were not cleared by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The MHA did not disclose the names of the prominent NGOs which have been denied the renewal of FCRA licence.