NEW DELHI: Foreign donations received over the past four years by NGOs and associations registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, totalled over Rs 50,975 crore, with the US topping the list of countries from where the funding emanated.
Replying to a query in the Rajya Sabha, minister of state for home Nityanand Rai informed that foreign contributions to NGOs based in India rose from Rs 15,355 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 16,940 crore in 2017-18, before falling slightly to Rs 16,490 crore in 2018-19. In 2019-20, the donations declared by NGOs in their annual returns total Rs 2,190 crore, though this figure is not final since many NGOs are yet to file their annual returns in view of the deadline having been extended till June 30, 2021.
Incidentally, the number of NGOs that received foreign funds has fallen steadily from 18,304 in 2016-17 to 18,235 in 2017-18 and 17,540 in 2018-19.
The minister said the highest foreign contributions were received from the United States — Rs 5,869 crore in 2016-17, Rs 6,199 crore in 2017-18, Rs 6,907 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 966 crore in 2019-20.
In terms of states/UTs in India where the foreign funding was headed, Delhi was No. 1 in 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20. Tamil Nadu was second during the four-year period, barring in 2019-20 when Kerala took the No. 2 slot in terms of extent of foreign donations received.