First published www.rediff.com.  To see slide show click here

The Foreign Contribution  Regulation Act was passed in 1976. It seeks to regulate receipt of funds by  NGOs. It is managed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). Any organization  that wants to receive contributions from abroad has to apply and get approval  from the Home Ministry. All remittances are received into a single bank account  of a scheduled bank. NGO has to annually submit audited receipts and payments  account, Balance Sheet etc to the Home Ministry. The MHA scrutinizes the  returns to ensure that contributions received for a particular purpose are used  for that purpose only. It does a detail check of randomly picked associations  and then collates the data received to present the FCRA Annual Report i.e.  uploaded on click here.

As on 31.3.2009 there were 36,414  registered associations under FCRA. These organizations could be religious,  social, educational, cultural and educational organizations.

Why do we need to analyze inflows  under FCRA?
1. Because of the sheer magnitude of inflows. Reported inflows into India were $ 2.4 billion in 2008-09, $ 2.15 billion in 2007-08 and $ 2.45 billion in 2006-07.
2. Reported contributions received from 1993-94 to 2008-09 Rs 84,182 crs. Actuals much higher.

Data taken from the FCRA report  is presented herewith under the following heads.
 
•Trends of Foreign Contributions 1993-94 to 2008-09. 
•Top 4 Remitting Countries 2002 to 2009. 
•Top 15 Donor Countries 2008-09 and 2007-08. 
•Top 15 recipient State wise 2008-09 and 2007-08. 
•Top Recipient Districts 2008-09 and 2007-08. 
•Top Recipient Associations 2008-09 and 2007-08.  
•Observations on Expenditure 2008-09.

There has been a steady increase  in the number of registered associations. Taking 15,039 associations in 1993-94  as a base year, their number grew by 41% in 2000-01, 101% in 2005-06 and 142%  in 2008-09.

In 2008-09 7,679 of the 20,088  associations who submitted their accounts did not receive any foreign  contributions meaning that reported contributions include amounts received by  43% of the number of associations.

Reported inflows in 2008-09 were  higher by Rs 1140 crs (12%) as compared to the previous year.