NGOs, associations under FCRA received Rs 58,000 crore in three years: MHA

NEW DELHI: NGOs and associations registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) received over Rs 58,000 crore as foreign funding over three years from 2016-17 to 2018-19, the home ministry informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
MoS (home) Nityanand Rai, in a written reply to a question, said foreign contributions received in 2018-19, including interest, totalled Rs 20,011 crore, higher than Rs 19,765 crore received in 2017-18 and Rs 18,338 crore in 2016-17.
On a query regarding utilisation of the foreign donations and purpose for which they were used, the home ministry said such details could be accessed association-wise, through its FCRA website.
Rai said a monitoring unit of FCRA wing keeps track of the receipt and utilization of foreign contribution by the FCRA-registered association. Methods of monitoring include, inter-alia, scrutiny of annual returns, inputs from field agencies, on-the-spot audit and inspection of the accounts of the associations etc.
Further, in the new system of FCRA monitoring, all annual returns are to be filed electronically. The bank accounts of the FCRA registered associations have also been linked to the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) for better monitoring of flow of funds, the MoS told Elders.