Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, Additional Secretary in the foreigners division of the Ministry of Home Affairs, has said that there are 20,000 non-government organisations in the country receiving foreign contributions for their activities to the tune of Rs. 10,000 crore every year. Mr. Ganai who spoke at an outreach seminar on Foreign Contributions Regulation Act, 2010, here on Friday said the Ministry was open to amendments to the legislation if good suggestions were received at these seminars across the country.
He added that the Ministry was strictly monitoring receipt of foreign contributions by NGOs and ensuring that they submitted utilisation certificates and filed returns by December 31 every year. The NGOs had to show activities for three years after taking permission and only then would be eligible for registration. They could not spend the funds on activities other than those permitted by FCRA. Representatives of 120 NGOs participated in the seminar which was also addressed by V. Vumlunmang, Joint Secretary, and N.I. Chowdhary, Deputy Secretary (Foreigners) in the Ministry. A presentation on perspective of banks and modalities of inward remittance through banking channel was made by Ponnuraj P, national head (retail institution business) of Kotak Mahindra Bank. The officials of the Ministry promised that the online portal would provide a messaging system and facilitate filing of statements by banks and annual returns by NGOs.
