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Have you Upload FCRA Financials to your NGO Website?

One of the major changes notified in the Amendments Rules 2015 is that now every NGO has to upload FCRA Financials to their websites within 9 months of year end. So the time limit is 31st December to upload FCRA financials to your NGO Website. In the same clause another amendment is to upload quarterly  FCRA receipts within 15 days of the quarter end. Let us discuss this in detail.

A. Upload FCRA Financials (Annually)

Q1 : What should be upload?

A1 :  Receipts and Payments Account (FC Funds), Income and Expenditure Accounts (FC Funds), Balance Sheet (FC Funds) and all the annexures.

Q2 : Is it Audited Statements?

A2 : Yes, all statements must be audited by chartered accountant.

Q3 : What is recommended format?

A3 : No format is recommended by FCRA department. It is preferable to have in PDF format.

Q4 : Where it should be upload?

A4 : NGO’s official website.

Q5 : What is the deadline?

A5 : After 9 months of Financial Year ends. i.e. 31st December.

Q6 : From which year  it should be upload?

A6 : Upload Financial Statements of 2014-15 immediately.

B. Upload Details of FC receipts  (Quarterly)

Q1 : What should be upload?

A1 :  Details of Donors, Amount Received and Date of Receipt.

Q2 : Is it Audited ?

A2 : No, only details to be uploaded.

Q3 : What is recommended format?

A3 : No format is recommended by FCRA department. It is preferable to have in PDF format.

Q4 : Where it should be upload?

A4 : As per the rule 13(b) of amendments 2015, It should be upload to NGO’s official website or website specified by the Central Government. (However no such website is specified by the Government yet, so preferable is to upload to NGO’s website right now)

Q5 : What is the deadline?

A5 : 15 Days after the end of the quarter.

  • Quarter
  • April to June
  • July to September
  • October to December
  • January to March
  • Deadline
  • 15th July
  • 15th October
  • 15th January
  • 15th April

Q6 : From which Quarter  it should be upload?

A6 : As per my opinion, NGO has to upload for three quarters of FY 2015-16  ending on 30 Jun, 30 Sept and 31 Dec  immediately.

C.What if NGO do not have website

If the NGOs do not have website, then it should get one. As the cost of creating and maintaining website is bit higher, I recommended to use below free tools / website :

https://wordpress.com/

https://www.blogger.com

Also watch my video on how to create free website of NGO on wordpress.com.

Kindly put your queries /questions / suggestions in the below comment box.

 

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FCRA Annual Return Form FC4 Date Extended

fcra form fc4

FCRA department has extended due date of Filling FC4 form – Annual Return from 31st December 2015 to 15th March 2016 for the financial year 2014-15.

As recently, FCRA Amendments Rules 2015 has been notified, all forms are changed and online filling is now mandatory. In the light of this changes, FCRA department has extended the FCRA annual return form FC4 filling date vide circular dated 22/12/2015,

  • OLD DATE
  • 31.12.2015
  • NEW DATE
  • 15.03.2016
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FCRA New Rules 2015

From 14th December 2015, FCRA new rules comes into force. Ministry of Home Affairs, FCRA department has issued this notification. The first and major impact of such notification is to file FCRA renewal form again. Read this blog for more details.

Here we are trying to understand the changes in Rule,2015 through some graphical presentations.

1. First Change is Change in Forms

FCRA_New_Rules_1_2015

Forms nomenclature and details has been change in New Rules 2015. Kindly go to this link and click on “Sample Forms”. You can download all the forms from there for your reference. However, filling of forms in paper format or offline mode is not allowed.

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Be Ready to fill Renewal of FCRA again

New Notification by FCRA

On 14th December, FCRA department has issued a notification regarding filling Renewal of FCRA form. You can download this notification here.

Let me summarize this notification –

  1. All the earlier application sent manually in Form FC-5 is now void.
  2. Need to apply again for renewal.
  3.  New Form is FC-3 – (Go to https://fcraonline.nic.in/home/index.aspx)
  4. Only Online Form FC3. Not accepted in manual or offline mode.
  5. Make Payment online. ( Does every organization have online banking account ?????  )
  6. Only those organization listed here are exempted for online payment (because their DDs and cheques are accepted) (What about other organization’s DD??????) – Download organization’s name – payments are accepted.

Many more doubts and questions come up in coming time. Let us give some time to study whole process. We will get back with easy info video on how to file Renewal of FCRA in FC3 form online. Till then watch this space for more info.

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FCRA Dos and Don’ts

FCRA Dos and Don’ts

As a crucial Act, an organization should take utmost care regarding FCRA. However, many myths prevails regarding what should be “Dos” and “Donts” regarding FCRA. Ministry of Home Affairs have clearly issued advisory in regard to this. You can download PDF from here. We try to make it simple and in Graphical Format. Lets Start with “Donts”

1. Do Not Mix Foreign Contribution with Domestic Receipts

Dont's1

Our Interpretation*

  1. Bank accounts must be separate (obviously)
  2. Do not Transfer funds from FC Bank to NonFC (even Direct Bank Transfer)
  3. Books of Accounts must be separate.
  4. Keep Separate Cash Box (it shows good cash control system)
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FCRA Renewal Status

How do we know, what is the status of application of FCRA renewal ? This is the question, every organization is asking now a days. Yes, we all are waiting regarding any communication from MHA, FCRA department regarding FCRA renewal status.

What is current scenario?

As per our knowledge, no organization,  throughout India has received any Renewal or Query Letter from MHA, FCRA department.

How to check FCRA Renewal Status?

No such mechanism prescribed or available right now online to check where your application is lying. Keep visiting our blog for any new news.

Time limit for FCRA Renewal?

As per section 16 (3) of FCR Act, 2010, renewal certificate should be issued withing 90 days from the date of the application received.

section 16(3)

“The Central Government shall renew the certificate, ordinarily within ninety days from the date of receipt of application for renewal of certificate . . . .

Provided that in case the Central Government does not renew the certificate within the said period of ninety days, it shall communicate the reason thereof to the applicant”

What to do now?

Organization can email to the FCRA department to ds-fcra@nic.dot.in email address (this email address mention on the fcraonline.nic.in website) with the details on which date you apply for renewal and DD no etc..

If you get any communication from FCRA department regarding renewal or any queries, kindly post in the comment so it will be useful to other readers of this blog. Thanks.

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FCRA and Administrative Expenses

Excess Administrative Expenses – one of the reason to cancel FCRA Registration

FCRA department may cancel your organization registration if you have excessive Administrative and Salary Expenses. Last month, FCRA Department has cancelled registration of SABRANG Trust. In the order regarding cancellation, one of the findings is, administrative expenses were excessive than permitted  by FCRA and no approval was taken. See para 5 of this order.

How much Administrative Expenses Allowed in FCRA?

As per Section 8 (1) (b) of the FCRA, 2010

“shall not defray as far as possible such sum, not exceeding fifty per cent. of such contribution, received in a financial year, to meet administrative expenses:”

So as per FCRA, limit for administrative expenses are 50%.

What is considered as Administrative Expenses?

Definition of Administrative Expenses is given in the Rule 5 of  FCR Rules, 2011. You can read it from here.

Let us interpret this rule.

 

  • As per Rule
  • (i) salaries, wages, travel expenses or any remuneration realized by the Members of the Executive Committee or Governing Council of the person;

     

     

     

  • (ii) all expenses towards hiring of personnel for management of the activities of the person and salaries, wages or any kind of remuneration paid, including cost of travel, to such personnel;
  • (iii) all expenses related to consumables like electricity and water charges, telephone charges, postal charges, repairs to premise(s) from where the organisation or Association is functioning, stationery and printing charges, transport and travel charges by the Members of the Executive Committee or Governing Council and expenditure on office equipment;
  • iv) cost of accounting for and administering funds

     

  • (vi) cost of writing and filing reports;

     

     

  • (vii) legal and professional charges;

     

  • viii) rent of premises, repairs to premises and expenses on other utilities:

     

     

     

  • * This interpretation is Author’s own view and kindly take expert opinion before taking any decisions based on this interpretation
  • Our Interpretation *
  • Any payments to Governing Board Members, Trustees, Exe committee members whether in the form of consultancy, remuneration, honorarium, wages, travel should include in the Administrative Expenses. However, program staff salary and travel is to be considered as project expenses.

  • Any payments to managers or co-ordinators, coordinating activities and persons of the organization should be considered as administrative expenses.

  • All the expenses related to Functioning office are considered as administrative expense. However, expenses related to the premise specifically and exclusively used for the project activities, like Training Centers, Library etc.. are not considered in the administrative expenses.

     

  • Salary of accountant or office support staff and travel and other expenses of them should be considered as administrative expenses.
  • Any expenses related to documentation whether it is consultancy, salary, wages, travel etc.. should considered as administrative expenses.
  • Audit Fees, Advocate Fees, Legal fees should considered as administrative expenses.
  • Rent, Rates and taxes of Admin office and field office should considered as administrative expenses.However, expenses related to the premise specifically and exclusively used for the project activities, like Training Centers, Library etc.. are not considered in the administrative expenses.
  • * This interpretation is Author’s own view and kindly take expert opinion before taking any decisions based on this interpretation

 

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Immediately update your NGO details on FCRA portal

Making all FCRA services online

FCRA department is in the process of making all the procedures online. (read this blog), previously asked NGOs to have digital signatures of Chief Functionary. Yesterday,  FCRA department has issued notification dated July 28, 2015 (download it from here) stating that in order to making all FCRA services online, instructed NGOs to go on FCRA portal and update their details.

Which Procedures becoming online?

  • Application for FCRA registration
  • Application for Prior Permission
  • Application for renewal of FCRA
  • Change Application for Name of Association
  • Change Application for Address of Association
  • Change Application for Bank Account of Association
  • Filling Annual Return

Attachments to any applications

All the documents and attachments for the above procedures will  also to be uploaded in scan copies. No hard copies of such documents accepted by FCRA department.

Payment of Fees

After everything will be online, payment of fees for above procedures will also be accepted only through online payments.

When ?

As mentioned in the above notification, after 15 to 20 days all the procedure will be online.

Immediate action to be taken by NGO – Very Important

FCRA department instructed NGOs to update their information –

1) Go to this link – http://fcraonline.nic.in/dat_col_frame.aspx

2) Enter your FCRA Registration No. , State and District (see below image)

Update_FCRA

3) Update all the information and save data (see image below)

Update_FCRA_details

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FC Grant Now exempt from Charity Contribution – Gujarat

Gujarat Government published in the Official Gazette on May 20, 2015 (Download it from here) regarding change in Gujarat Public Trust Act, 1950 and these rules may be called the “Bombay Public Trust (Gujarat) (Amendments) Rules, 2015. One of the major welcome change is to consider Foreign Grant as deduction for calculation of Charity Contribution.

Earlier, only local contribution/grants and government grants were allowed to deduct from amount liable to contribution. No such provision related to Foreign Grants deduction was there, because of old act since 1950 and never amended thereafter.

Change in Balance Sheet and Income Expenditure format –

Schedule VIII related to Balance Sheet and major change is to show balance in FCRA Bank account separately. Have a look –

charitybS

Schedule IX is related to Income and Expenditure Account  and major change is to show Grants in Foreign Money  separately. Have a look –

charityIE

Change in Schedule IX-C – Statement showing amount Liable to Contribution –

Major relief comes here, where it is notified in this revised schedule of IX-C, that Grant and Donation under FCRA is not chargeable to contribution under section 58 and rule 32. Lets have a look –

charity9C

From when it is applicable –

As no date specified in the official gazette, we interpret that any Statements prepared after May 20, 2015 (date of notification) must be prepared as per this new format.

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