In a move widely expected to strengthen the ability of religious bodies registered as NGOs to raise funds and suppress conversion, the Federal Home Ministry has amended the rules for receiving foreign funds under the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA).
The amended rules also state that any association with foreign nationals, other than those of Indian origin, as key employees “will not ordinarily be considered” for granting registration or prior permission to receive foreign funds under the Act. It requires NGOs to explicitly state the areas in which they will work, and details of their social media accounts.
A notification was issued in the Official Gazette late Monday evening in this regard.
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These rules are certainly independent of the amended draft law introduced by the government in March, which it will likely try to pass in the next session of Parliament. This bill has proven controversial, with religious groups inside and outside the country also protesting some of its provisions.
The notification said the new rules notified provided for an exception allowing the Central Government to determine such cases or circumstances through an order under which foreign nationals may be permitted to be key employees of an association to register or obtain prior permission under the FCRA.
Over the past few years, the government has notified a number of amendments in the rules of the FCRA Act, 2011, resulting in tightened accountability for how NGOs and associations in India receive and use foreign funds.
The amendments have broadened the definition of key employee in relation to a person other than an individual “to include a wider range of roles including directors of companies, partners in companies, trustees, ‘karta’ (trustee) of an undivided Hindu family, and any person who has control over the management of the association. The government has introduced a new provision whereby NGOs seeking to register to receive foreign funds will have to specify precisely the purpose and jurisdiction or union territory of their operations.”
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“Every application for registration shall state the purpose or purposes for which registration is sought, selected only from the list of purposes specified in the schedule annexed to these rules; and the states or union territories in which the association proposes to carry out activities,” the notification issued on Monday said. She said the details would be specified in the certificate issued to the NGO and that applicants must now choose their activities from the “schedule” stipulated in the rules, which covers religious, cultural, economic, educational and social categories as purposes.
Under religious purposes, various activities are included, including the construction, renovation, and maintenance of religious places, religious education, and the promotion of devotional music.
The rules specify that three purposes – religious education, documentation of religious traditions, and preservation of indigenous beliefs – can be carried out “with the exception of proselytization.”
The rules give one year for all associations registered before 2026 to disclose to the government their specific purposes and the statuses they want to keep in their registration. The Center has also introduced a fee structure through the amended rules where additional fees are added $You will be charged 300 Egyptian pounds for each additional case or item added to the application.
In order to prevent inactive NGOs from holding licences, the government has introduced a minimum expenditure of $10,000 foreign contributions for selected activities during the past two fiscal years, according to the notification. NGOs receiving foreign funds must also provide details of their social media accounts in applications for registration or renewal under the FCRA. If the funds come through intermediary funds transfers or “donor advisory funds,” the NGO must disclose the ultimate donor (the original source of funds) in its applications, according to the notice. After that, their annual returns must now include a “detailed activity report” along with financial statements, the rules state. NGOs will also have to declare whether they have published any books or articles by themselves or through their keys, as they are prohibited from producing or broadcasting “news or current affairs”.
The FCRA, 2010, which came into force in 2011, regulates the acceptance and use of foreign contributions and foreign hospitality to ensure that such inflows do not adversely affect the national interest, public order or national security. The law entered into force on May 1, 2011 and has since been amended in 2016, 2018, and 2020.
In March this year, the government introduced a new bill, the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 to introduce changes such as allowing the government to appoint an “ad hoc authority” to take over, manage or sell assets created from foreign funds by an NGO whose license under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, or FCRA, has been revoked, suspended, or simply not renewed. Legal experts said that the amendments impose excessive regulatory burdens on non-governmental organizations, which could lead to reduced funding and hinder charitable, social and development work. They also stressed that the changes may disproportionately affect some religious organizations.
Senior advocate Tanveer Ahmad Mir, who has appeared in several FCRA cases, said, “FCRA facilitates infusion of funds. Instead of providing a mechanism to supervise the law, the government is launching a crackdown. The new amendments have been introduced mainly to falsely target Christians and Muslims by accusing them of indulging in religious conversions despite the absence of any evidence.”
Abhishek Jebaraj, a Supreme Court lawyer, described the amendments as “yet another example of immature and hasty rules.”
“These new regulations will not help consolidation. Instead, they will hamper the social sector, which faces more regulatory ambiguity without the administrative resources needed to deal with changes every few months. For example, the latest amendment appears to require FCRA-registered NGOs to disclose to which states they seek to tap funding. Take, for example, an NGO largely working in Tamil Nadu to prevent human trafficking, taking action in the case of a minor being trafficked for sexual exploitation in Assam. Can they provide assistance to the victim without worrying about Prosecution? Not obtaining permission to operate in Assam under FCRA,” Jebaraj said.
