Over 10,000 NGOs may lose license to get foreign grant: Govt

Over 10,000 NGOs may lose their license to receive foreign grant as they have failed to give their annual income and expenditure records to the government.
A total of 18,523 Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) were in May this year given one-time opportunity by the Union home ministry to give details of their income and expenses by June 14.
These NGOs, which are registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act or FCRA that allows them to receive financial aid from abroad, were told to submit their annual returns for five years--2010-11 to 2014-15.
However, only 8,267 NGOs have only filed such returns for all the five years, official sources said today.

The remaining 10,256 NGOs have still not filed all the returns and may lose their registration, they said.
There are 2,239 NGOs which have filed returns for four years, 2,071 for three years, 2,057 for two years and 2,339 for one year, the sources said.

The home ministry had earlier warned these NGOs of losing the registration if they fail to give details.
"Last date for uploading annual returns for 2010-11 to 2014-15 is June 14, 2017. Failure to upload all annual returns will lead to cancellation of registration/renewal already granted," joint secretary (foreigners) in the home ministry Mukesh Mittal had said in an order.

The ministry had said that starting May 15 and till June 14, all such NGOs could upload their missing annual returns along with the requisite documents within 30 days.
No compounding fee will be imposed on them for late filing of annual returns during this period and this exemption was a one-time measure.
As per the rules, the renewal of registration for receiving the foreign aid cannot be granted unless the annual returns are uploaded to the FCRA website by the organisation.
There are over 20,000 NGOs registered under the FCRA, the sources said.
The home ministry is estimated to have cancelled the licences of nearly 7,500 NGOs in last three years after they failed to disclose their income and expenditure statements.

In November 2016, the government had directed more than 11,000 NGOs to file applications for renewal of registration by February 28, 2017.
However, only 3,500 NGOs filed applications for renewal while the registration of more than 7,000 NGOs were deemed expired due to non-filing.