Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010 (FCRA) is established to regulate the foreign contribution received by any association, individual or organisation. Government of India has consolidated all the laws relating to such transactions.
The department of Foreign contribution regulation act comes under the ministry of Home affairs. It is considered as an optional for Trust, NGO & Section 8 Company.
Type of FCRA Registration in India
There are two types of FCRA registration are categorised.
- Prior Permission FCRA Registration
- Proper FCRA Registration
Prior Permission FCRA Registration : A newly registered organisation which is willing to receive any kind of Foreign Contribution is eligible to register FCRA in Prior Permission category.
The requirements for obtaining the Prior Permission FCRA registration is simply defined as the foreign owner should be specified at the time of making registration application. The use of fund is specifying for a purpose as well as the amount of foreign contribution is also defined.
Proper FCRA Registration: There are specific requirements given on the time of establishing this Act. To Apply for Proper FCRA Registration, following requirements must be met with:
- The minimum time period of 5 years is required for the applicant in terms of Registration & operations.
- Minimum 10 Lakh rupees must have spent in last 3 years for it’s main object without even including any of administrative expenditure.
- 3 years if financial statements are required to submit by the applicant which must be audited by the qualified charted accountants.
Eligibility for FCRA Registration
The eligibility criteria for obtaining the FCRA registration is given blow:
- The applicant should be a Non - Profit organisation and registered under Indian Trust Act, 1882 as Registered trust.
- Applicant must be registered Under Societies Registration Act, 1860, and
- It should be registered under Companies Act, 2013 as a Section 8 Company.
- The Institutions must have been set up as Non profitable or Charitable object with the motto of serving the society in any manner.
- It should not have been prohibited as per section 3 of the FCRA Act, 2010.
How to Obtain FCRA Registration
The process of FCRA registration can be done as well. For registering FCRA, an online application could be file on Form FC – 3 along with all the scanned copies of all relevant documents.
To obtain FCRA Registration, there is a pre-requisite. Applicant must be a non-profitable organisation such as NGO, trust & registered under Company 8 Act, 2013. It must have a DARPAN ID and in order to obtain DARPAN ID, it required to register on DARPAN Portal provided by NITI Ayog.
If it seems complicated, there are so many third party service providers who provide aggregating services for FCRA Registration.