The Central government on Tuesday told Lok Sabha that they have not denied the renewal of licenses to around 5,800 organisations under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), but the registration ceased as they have failed to apply within a stipulated time.
“No cancellation of FCRA registration done with respect to recent FCRA amendments of 2020. Around 5800 FCRA registered associations had not submitted their applications for renewal within the stipulated time. As a result, their FCRA registration has ceased,” Nityanand Rai, Minister of State for Home Affairs told Lok Sabha in a written reply.
This came in a reply to the question of whether the government has cancelled licenses of NGOs which failed to comply with revised guidelines.
He was further asked about whether the Centre has restored licenses of NGOs under FCRA.
Rai stated that the Centre had renewed the FCRA registration of two NGOs since November 2021 claiming that 5,800 of them did not apply for it.
Replying to a question about the number of NGOs whose licenses were cancelled during the last three years, he stated that a total of 1811 FCRA registration certificates of NGOs or associations were cancelled during the last three years 2019 to 2021.