ARC to monitor big donations received by organisations

In the backdrop of reports of some terror groups and fundamentalist outfits getting money from abroad, a government panel today favoured amendments in the existing law to monitor big foreign contributions received by all organisations.     

To make the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976, more stringent, the Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) said organisations getting over Rs 10 lakh a year as foreign contribution must be put under the scanner.     

Releasing the 231-page report at a press conference, ARC Chairman M Veerappa Moily said organisations receiving an annual foreign contribution equivalent to less than Rs 10 lakh should be exempted from registration and other requirements.     

They should be asked, instead, to file an annual return of the foreign contribution received by them and its utilisation at the end of the year, he said.     

"The law may provide that they may be liable to be investigated, if there is a reasonable suspicion of suppression or misrepresentation of facts, and penal provisions of the law will be used against them in case violation is established," he said.     

The Commission in its report said it was "aware that a large number of voluntary organisations are receiving donations from foreign sources and it is quite possible that at times the funds could be used for purposes which could adversely affect national interest".     

It said 99 organisations had received contributions above Rs 10 cr in 2005-06 compared to 70 in 2004-05 and 57 in 2003-04.