Active FCRA NGOs fall by half while foreign inflows rise to Rs 22,974 crore

The number of active NGOs registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act has dropped from 29,022 in 2015 to 14,466 now, even as the money they receive from abroad has climbed. Home Secretary Govind Mohan took those figures to a 31-member joint parliamentary committee on 18 September. The panel, chaired by BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal, is examining the FCRA (Amendment) Bill, 2026. The first sitting ran more than three hours.

Foreign receipts were Rs 17,832 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 22,974 crore in 2024-25. That is a rise of Rs 5,142 crore over nine years, spread across a list of organisations that is roughly half as long. The ministry has cancelled 21,983 registrations in the wider period. Of those cancellations, 91.3 percent were for failure to file annual returns, 7.9 percent for inactivity and 0.4 percent for legal violations.

Where the money sits

Tamil Nadu has the most active FCRA associations at 2,102. Maharashtra has 1,578, Karnataka 1,355, Delhi 1,218, Andhra Pradesh 1,022 and Kerala 1,013. The 14,466 figure covers associations across 15 states. Receipts do not follow headcount. Delhi took Rs 5,834 crore in 2024-25, Karnataka Rs 3,164 crore, Maharashtra Rs 2,385 crore and Tamil Nadu Rs 2,313 crore.

The United States was the largest source at Rs 12,113 crore, about 53 percent of the year's inflow. The United Kingdom sent Rs 2,414 crore, Germany Rs 1,782 crore, Switzerland Rs 733 crore and Singapore Rs 669 crore.

Purpose codes tell a different story from the political argument that often surrounds the Act. Social activities received about Rs 13,071 crore, or 57 percent. Education received about Rs 6,933 crore, or 30 percent. Religious purposes received Rs 1,841 crore, or 8 percent. Of that religious slice, the ministry told the panel, 73.05 percent went to Christian bodies (Rs 1,345 crore on one official breakdown) and 17.81 percent to Hindu organisations (Rs 328 crore). Muslim groups received Rs 19 crore, Buddhist groups Rs 51 crore. Non-religious associations in the religious-purpose table were listed at Rs 60 crore in one compilation circulated after the briefing.

What the amendment is for

Officials described the FCRA as national security legislation at its core. They said the 2026 bill is meant to close legal and operational gaps and to make enforcement clearer. Protests against the Kudankulam nuclear plant and the Sardar Sarovar dam came up in the discussion as examples of the files the ministry still treats as relevant to foreign money and public agitation.

The raw numbers cut against a simple squeeze narrative and against a simple flood narrative. There are fewer legally active recipients. Each remaining recipient, on average, handles more money. Cancellations are driven overwhelmingly by paperwork, not by prosecuted violations. That last point is the one the ministry can use to defend the law and the one critics can use to say the law is a clerical weapon.

The committee will now hear other witnesses. The bill will move, or stall, on whether MPs accept the home ministry's claim that a shorter list and a larger pot add up to cleaner oversight. The 14,466 associations still filing returns will keep doing the work that produced Rs 22,974 crore last year. They will do it under a statute that is about to be rewritten around them.