FCRA REGISTRATION & RENEWAL
In order to regulate the foreign contribution or foreign hospitality received by any individual, association or company the Government of India has consolidated all the laws and regulations relating to such transactions by way of enactment of Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010. This was done to create a transparent mechanism for individuals and organizations through E-governance of FCRA related activities and at the same time to discourage any detrimental activities which can be against national interest.
At present FCRA Registration and renewal is being controlled by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India (MHA), New Delhi.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
The applicant organization must have been set up with charitable objective of serving the society in any manner like promotion of health, education, art, cultural, religious, sports etc and it must not have been prohibited as per Section 3 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 to accept foreign contribution.
The applicant entity must be registered under Society Registration Act 1860 or Indian Trust Act 1882 or a registered Section 8 Company under Companies Act, 2013 or a Liaison Office (LO) of Foreign NGO.
The applicant entity must have FCRA Bank Account with State Bank of India, Parliament Street, New Delhi.
There are two types of Registration as under:-
REGULAR REGISTRATION-
In order to be eligible to apply for normal FCRA registration following minimum requirements must be met with:
The applicant must be registered and operating for a minimum period of 3 years.
The organization must have spent minimum 10 Lakh rupees in the last 3 years for furtherance of its main objects. The expenditure so incurred will not include any kind of administrative expenses for assessment of eligible amount of expenditure of Rs. 10,00,000 spent by the applicant for its main object.
The accounts of the applicant must have been audited by a Chartered Accountant for last three years atleast.
Annual Activities Report for last three years
PRIOR PERMISSION REGISTRATION
Prior permission registration route is available to the organizations those are newly set up or in other words are not in position to met the criteria laid out above for regular registration. Such permission is granted by MHA for specified amount from identified donor for carrying out particular activities, works or projects. The applicant must met the following criteria:
The applicant must be a society, trust or section 8 Company as per Companies Act, 2013.
It must have commitment letter from the donor specifying the amount of donation and its purpose
In case, the foreign donor entity and Indian Donee entity has common members, in that case the key functionary of Indian donee entity cannot be part of foreign donor entity, and at least 51% member/office bearer of Governing Counsel of Indian Donee entity should not employee/members of foreign donor entity .
In case, the foreign donor is individual, in that case he cannot be the key functionary of Indian Donee entity.
The Governing Counsel of Indian Donee entity should not have more than 49% office bearers /members belonging to one family and their close friends and relatives.
PROCESS OF FCRA REGISTRATION
To register under FCRA, the organization must have a DARPAN ID. For this ID, the organization is required to register itself on DARPAN portal as
provided by the NITI Ayog.
For obtaining FCRA Registration, an application in Form FC-3 is to be submitted online with Ministry of Home Affairs, New Delhi along with scanned copies of all the relevant documents as required. The authority has been very strict in terms of approving the FCRA Registration application as the application along with the documents are analyzed in great detail by the authority. Thus, it is recommended to take help from expert professionals having requisite experience of the matter.
RENEWAL OF FCRA REGISTRATION
FCRA registration has a validity of 5 years, at the end of which it lapses. Thus the organizations are required to file a renewal application for the same. Generally, the registered entity is required to submit a renewal application at least 6 months before the registration lapses. However, if the registered entity is working on ongoing multi-year projects then this renewal application is required to be filed at least 12 months before the FCRA registration get lapses. The entity has to file fresh application alongwith documents as it is seeking regular FCRA registration as stated above.
Our team of experts, here in PKP can ensure to file error free FCRA Application that will reduce the chances of rejection / re-submission.