The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday unanimously approved the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2020 amid protests by the Opposition. The bill makes it mandatory for the office bearers of NGOs to provide their Aadhaar numbers at the time of registration along with several other changes.

The bill specifically reduces the use of foreign funds to meet the administrative expenses of the NGOs from 50% to 20% of annual funds to ensure spending on their main objectives.

Apart from this, it allows the union government to allow an NGO or association to surrender its FCRA certificate. According to the Centre, the amendment is in favour of good NGOs that want to work for the country.

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Notably, many voluntary organizations have raised concerns over the bill as it’ll bring about several changes that will further tighten restrictions on international funding.

Meanwhile, the Opposition has claimed that the Centre is misusing FCRA’s provisions to attack them politically and is fulfilling its agenda.

On July 8, the Home Ministry set up an interministerial committee to investigate Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, and the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust.  All of them are connected to the Gandhi family.

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The annual inflow of international donations has been nearly doubled between 2010 and 2019. According to the government, beneficiaries of foreign funding have exploited the money in many ways.

The FCRA 2010 has already been amended twice. The first amendment was made by Section 236 of the Finance Act, 2016 and the second by Section 220 of the Finance Act, 2018.

The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday and will become an act following President’s assent.