Union home ministry extends validity of FCRA registered NGOs till June 30

The Union home ministry on Thursday extended till June 30 the validity of all FCRA registered NGOs whose licences are expiring on March 31, in a relief to those whose renewal applications are still under consideration.

The ministry has also given time till June 30 to all NGOs whose five-year validity period is expiring between April 1, 2024, and June 30, 2024, so that they can apply for renewal before the expiry of their validity.

According to the law, all NGOs receiving foreign contributions have to be registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.

In a notification, the home ministry said the central government, in the public interest, has decided to extend the validity of FCRA registration certificates of the FCRA registered entities whose validity was extended till March 31, 2024, in terms of the public notice dated September 25, 2023, and whose renewal application is pending.

The validity is now extended till June 30, 2024, or till the date of disposal of the renewal application, whichever is earlier, it said.

The home ministry also said the validity of those FCRA registered entities whose five-year validity period is expiring from April 1, 2024, to June 30, 2024, and who have applied or will apply for renewal before the expiry of the five-year validity period will stand extended up to June 30, 2024, or till the date of disposal of the renewal application, whichever is earlier.

There were 16,301 NGOs in the country which had a valid FCRA licence as of July 17, 2023.

The central government had cancelled the FCRA licences of over 6,600 NGOs in the last five years for violation of the law. Overall, FCRA licences of 20,693 NGOs have been cancelled in the last decade.

According to the data disclosed in parliament last year, Rs 55741.51 crore foreign contributions were received by the FCRA-registered 13,520 associations or NGOs in the financial year 2019-2020 to 2021-2022.