FCRA amendment Bill allows Centre to seize, manage NGOs’ assets

THe authorities put up charge a “designated authorisation” to use up over, manage, or sell assets created from foreign funds by an NGO whose licence under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, or FCRA, is cancelled, suspended, or simply not renewed.And it can act against not just the people directly managing these NGOs but also their directors and trustees.Both are changes in the existing law that the government plans to bring about through the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, which it introduced in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.While the purpose of the amendment is to ensure foreign money is not used to fund activities detrimental to national interest, people in the NGO-sector see it as a continuation of the government’s strong-arm approach. A total 21,700 FCRA licences have been cancelled till date, according to MHA data. It is believed that many others have simply chosen not to seek renewal of their FCRA licences.The amendment also proposes to reduce the maximum imprisonment for violation of foreign funding laws from five years to one year, besides fixing timelines for the utilisation of foreign funds received under the prior permission category.While introducing the bill in the Lok Sabha, Union minister of state for home affairs, Nityanand Rai, asserted that the “the Modi government will not tolerate any misutilisation of foreign funding and will take strong action against such elements”.The FCRA, 2010, which came into effect in 2011 regulates the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contributions and foreign hospitality to ensure that such inflows do not adversely affect national interest, public order or national security. The law came into force on May 1, 2011 and has since been amended in 2016, 2018 and 2020. According to home ministry data, currently there are 16,000 bodies which are registered under FCRA and receive around total ₹22,000 crore annually.According to the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, the proposed law seeks have a “comprehensive statutory framework for vesting, supervision, management and disposal of foreign contribution and assets through a designated authority, including provisional and permanent vesting; to provide timelines for receipt and utilisation under prior permission; to provide for cessation of certificate; to regulate handling of assets during suspension; to rationalise penalties; and to require prior approval of the Central government for initiation of investigation”.Opposing the bill, Congress leader Manish Tewari said “the bill would give sweeping power to the executive without any constitutional safeguards.” Trinamool Congress leader Pratima Mondal said “the new bill was dangerous and draconian as all the Central government will have absolute power and ensure centralisation of authority”.Rai replied that “it is indeed dangerous but for those who indulge in forced religious conversion and those who abuse the foreign funding for personal gain”.Senior advocate Tanveer Ahmad Mir, who appears in several FCRA cases, termed the amended provisions in the new bill as “draconian” and “oppressive”.“This is a draconian provision (to takeover assets of NGOs) and has been borrowed from the fugitive economic offenders act (FEOA) playbook, where assets of fugitives are confiscated without trial. It is an oppressive move from the government. In so far taking over assets, the prevalent law already allows agencies like the CBI and ED to investigate the NGOs and seize the assets. Then why do we need a separate law? Also, how can you come up with a law which takes over and sells assets without conviction? This is completely perversity and violates all presumption of innocence.”Mir added that “The intent of the government is to ensure that human rights organisations or those critical of government should not get any foreign funds because their activities are not to the liking of government.”