The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday extended the validity of FCRA registration of NGOs till June 30, revising its previous extended deadline of March 31.
An order by MHA said that the validity of registration certificates of such entities whose validity was extended till March 31 and “whose renewal application is pending will stand extended till June 30 or till the date of disposal of renewal application, whichever is earlier.
”The order added that all Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act registered associations should note that in case of refusal of the application for renewal of of registration, the validity of the certificate shall be deemed to have expired on the date of refusal of the application and the association or the NGO shall not be eligible either to receive the foreign contribution or utilise the foreign contribution received.
The order said that The FCRA entities whose 5-year validity period is expiring between April 1-June 30 and the NGOs that have applied for renewal before the expiry of the registration will also stand extended till June 30“ or till the date of disposal of renewal application, whichever is earlier.”
The registration of thousands of non-governmental organisations (NGO) and associations that were up for renewal in October 2021 were stuck and the deadline for the same was December 31.
Registration under FCRA is mandatory for any NGO or association to receive foreign funds and it is renewed every five years.
The FCRA registration of nearly 6,000 non-governmental organisations (NGO) had ceased to operate from January 1 as MHA refused to renew their application or the NGOs did not apply for one. There are 16,815 FCRA registered NGOs as on Thursday, down from over 22,000 on December 31.
