Home Ministry drops registration of Infosys Foundation

The Ministry of Home Affairs has cancelled the registration of Bengaluru-based Infosys Foundation for receiving foreign funds following a request from the NGO.

A Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) spokesperson said the registration was cancelled at the NGO's request and there was no violation.

An official had earlier said that the licence was cancelled due to violations of FCRA norms.

Following reports, the Infosys Foundation issued a statement saying it has "not violated" any FCRA norms and was "de-registered from FCRA following its request" to the Ministry. It said the Foundation has not received any notice to file returns pertaining to FCRA after April 2018.

It said Foundation was registered under the FCRA Act in January 2016 and in May, the Government amended the FCRA Act with retrospective effect from 2010 as a result of which Foundation no longer fell under the purview of the FCRA Act.

"The Foundation thereafter applied for its de-registration from FCRA with an additional request to cancel the FCRA registration in June 2016, and received acknowledgement from the FCRA wing in the same month. The Foundation has submitted its annual returns for FY16, FY17 and FY18, though it did not fall under the purview of Act following its amendment," it said.

Additionally, the statement added, the Foundation has also submitted the necessary paperwork to the Government in July 2018 to showcase that the Foundation has not received any foreign funding.

According to the MHA, 96 entities in Karnataka, including the Infosys Foundation, were served show cause notice last November for failing to submit mandatory annual income and expenditure statement on foreign funding for up to six years. These organisations were part of the 1,775 entities which were served the notice on 16 November, 2018. From Karnataka, there are 96 organisations which find their name in the list.

The FCRA guidelines mandates that registered associations are required to submit electronically an online annual report with scanned copies of income and expenditure statement, receipts and payment account, balance sheet among other documents for every financial year within nine months of the closure of the financial year.

Even organisations which did not receive foreign contribution during a particular year are also required to furnish a 'NIL' return for that financial year within the deadline.