MHA’s Advisory on Three FCRA Compliance (post Amendment to the Act & Rules)

The Office of FCRA Wing of Foreigners Division, MHA has issued Advisory for Compliance by FCRA registered NGOs/Associations with the Amended Provisions in FCRA, 2010 and FCRR, 2011.

The advisory can be read/downloaded at: https://fcraonline.nic.in/home/PDF_Doc/fc_advisory_27112020.pdf

The advisory is meant for any association that belongs to one of the following categories:

1. Those associations which have submitted application for Registration/Prior Permission;
2.  Those associations which have submitted application for Renewal;
3. Those associations which are yet to submit application for Registration/Prior Permission;
4. Those associations which are yet to submit application for Renewal;
5. Those associations which hold valid FCRA Registration/Prior Permission and are not in immediate of renewal of such Registration certificate/Prior Permission.

Among various requirements arising from the recent amendments to the Act and the Rules, three key compliances relate to:

1. Obtaining a DARPAN ID from NITI Aayog portal for the association;
2. Opening the Main “FCRA Account” in SBI Parliament Street Branch, New Delhi; and
3. Seeding Adhaar details of all office bearers.

Advisory statement on these three key compliance can be accessed at: https://fcraonline.nic.in/home/PDF_Doc/fc_rules_12112020.pdf

Regarding compliance on FCRA “Bank Accounts”, a separate public notice dated 13.10.2020 has been issued with detailed clarifications, and it can be accessed at: https://fcraonline.nic.in/home/PDF_Doc/fc_notice_13102020.pdf

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be followed by all branches of SBI is placed on the web portal: https://fcraonline.nic.in/home/PDF_Doc/fc_sop_20112020.pdf  and also available on the web portal of the State Bank of India.

All associations falling under any of the categories listed above are requested to comply.

In the meantime, MHA has extended the date for filing Annual Return in Form FC-4 for the Financial year 2019-20 to 30^th June 2021. However, if your association is ready with the accounts you need not wait till next year or till you open the Bank account with SBI NDMB.