The Union Home Ministry has issued show cause notice to around 6,000 NGOs for not filing their annual income and expenditure records for five consecutive years. The show cause notices were issued on July 8 and the NGOs have time till July 23 to give their reply. Failure to provide a convincing reply will result in the cancellation of the licenses granted to receive foreign donations.
"In spite of sufficient and adequate notice, it has been observed that 5,922 associations have not uploaded their annual returns for three or more than three years within the stipulated time given in the notice. Such associations have now been issued show cause notice as to why their registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, (FCRA) may not be cancelled under Section 14 of FCRA, 2010 for failure to upload their Annual Returns from 2010-11 to 2014-15," said the MHA's circular issued on Monday.
Among the NGOs, Nehru Memorial Museum and library, Indira Gandhi National Centre For the Arts, IGNOU, Delhi Technological University, Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) and Punjabi University, Patiala also got show cause from MHA for not submitting accounts.
In May this year, 18,523 NGOs were given a one-time opportunity by the home ministry to give details of their income and expenses by June 14. The home ministry said in a circular that as a onetime measure, all NGOs were given an opportunity for one month to file their missing annual returns by June 14 without paying any penalty. Email and SMS alerts were also sent to them regularly for one month beginning mid-May.
According to the FCRA, the renewal of registration for receiving foreign funds cannot be granted unless the annual returns are uploaded on the FCRA website by the organisation. Over 20,000 NGOs are registered under the FCRA.
In November 2016, the government had directed more than 11,000 NGOs to file applications for renewal of registration by February 28, 2017. Of the above, 3,500 NGOs filed applications for renewal till February 2017. Registration of more than 7,000 NGOs were deemed expired due to non-filing of renewal applications.