95 K'taka NGOs lost licence for foreign funding in 2019

Ninety-five NGOs, academic and religious institutions, including the foundation in the name of violinist L Subramaniam and Infosys Foundation, have lost their licence to receive foreign funds this year, taking the total to over 1,400 since 2012.

Except for Infosys Foundation, which had earlier requested cancellation, licences of 94 organisations were revoked due to violation of provisions of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).

Altogether, 1,444 organisations in Karnataka have lost FCRA licence, which is mandatory for receiving foreign funds, since 2012 and licences of five of them were cancelled on request.

In 2019, the organisations in Karnataka which lost the licence include, Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Prathistana, Dr L Subramaniam Foundation, Swami Vivekananda Educational Society, Sri Sai International Charitable Trust, Shravanbelagola Digambar Jain Matha Institutions Managing Committee Trust, Rishi Samskrutha Vidya Kendra, National Association of Realtors India and Bethany Educational Charitable Trust.

Officials said notices were issued to NGOs and organisations across the country in November 2018 for failing to submit mandatory annual income and expenditure statement on foreign funding for up to six years. From Karnataka, there are 96 organisations which found their name on this list.

FCRA guidelines mandate that registered associations are required to submit 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 contributions during a particular year are required to furnish a 'NIL' return for that financial year within the deadline.

This year so far, licences of 1,807 organisations have been revoked and this included University of Rajasthan, Allahabad Agricultural Institute, Young Men's Christian Association (Tamil Nadu), National Geophysical Research Institute (Telangana) and National Institute of Virology (Maharashtra).

Since 2014, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has cancelled the FCRA registration of over 14,800 NGOs.