The Indian government has introduced a bill to amend the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, proposing the creation of a designated authority to take over and manage assets created from foreign funds when an organisation's registration is cancelled or not renewed.
The Foreign Contribution Regulation Amendment Bill, 2026, aims to reduce the maximum imprisonment for violations of foreign funding laws from five years to one year and fix timelines for the utilisation of foreign funds received under the prior permission category.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai asserted that the government will not tolerate any misutilisation of foreign funding and will take strong action against such elements.
The existing Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010, regulates the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contributions to ensure that such inflows do not adversely affect national interest, public order or national security.
The proposed legislation seeks to establish a comprehensive statutory framework for vesting, supervision, management and disposal of foreign contribution and assets through a designated authority.
Opposing the bill, Congress leader Manish Tewari said it would give sweeping power to the executive without any constitutional safeguards.
Under the proposed law, the Ministry of Home Affairs has introduced a new Chapter IIIA to establish the designated authority, which will have powers to take provisional or permanent control of assets created from foreign funds in cases where FCRA certificates have been cancelled, surrendered or ceased.
