×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Rajya Sabha passes Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill

Last Updated 23 September 2020, 07:57 IST

Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed a bill that bars transfer of foreign funds from one NGO to another, prohibits public servants from taking donations from abroad and mandating Aadhaar for registration, amid concerns raised by the civil society and some parties.

With this, the changes made in the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act will go to the President for his assent. The Lok Sabha had passed the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill on Monday while the Rajya Sabha cleared it in the absence of Opposition MPs who have boycotted the session from Monday demanding revocation of suspension of eight MPs.

Replying to the 50-minute debate, Minister of State for Home Nityananda Rai said the amendments were not aimed at any NGO but an effort to maintain transparency.

The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020 is a law for national and internal security and the main motive is to ensure that foreign funds do not dominate the political and social discourse in the country.

"Experience says that many organisations attempted to hide their identity and were successful in doing that. The reason behind this is that they had no fear because their identity was not established completely. So Aadhaar has been brought in to establish their identity," he said.

Participating in the debate, BJP's Arun Singh said NGOs receiving foreign funds were indulging in misdoings and there was a need to curb it.

He alleged that some NGOs were misusing foreign funds for "buying chocolates, big vehicles and renting big houses" instead of using it for the upliftment of the poor while emphasising that the new amendments provided for verifying the utilisation of the funds. "Some NGOs are using such funds for forced conversions, like some NGOs in Kerala," he alleged.

AIADMK MP S Balasubramoniyam said the Bill has "good and bad" provisions and the government should not use the bill to target political opponents or religious minorities.

"The government should assure us this will not happen that political opponents won't be targeted. There may be some bad NGOs, but there are hundreds of genuine NGOs doing good work. Stop bulldozing NGOs who are doing good work," he said.

He also raised concerns about the lowering the ceiling on administrative expenses to 20% of the foreign funds, saying it could have an impact on the working of NGOs involved in Covid-19 related work.

Nominated MP Swapandas Gupta demanded a White Paper on the working of NGOs saying it would make it clear who is doing genuine work and help the government counter charges raised at international level that it is victimising the NGOs.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 23 September 2020, 05:10 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT