Tech industry body Nasscom has urged the government to temporarily relax the conditions of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) to ensure overseas money can flow into the country to fight the second wave of the coronavirus.
In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nasscom sought the further liberalisation of vaccine import norms.
Nasscom said data was a strategic ammunition available to manage the pandemic. Insights and analytics from Covid tracking and vaccination data could play a key role in decision making and to obtain early warning signals.
All these steps will enable the industry to “do more and act faster to help the country navigate the second wave and be better prepared to deal with future waves”.
The demand to ease FCRA comes at a time reports suggest the government is trying to closely regulate Covid fund flows into the country.
The Nasscom letter to the Prime Minister says a temporary waiver of the FCRA Act and the amendments made in 2020 will “enable NGOs to transfer funds between two FCRA-approved NGOs and non-FCRA approved NGOs”.
The FCRA, which was passed by Parliament in September 2020, regulates the acceptance and use of foreign contribution by individuals, associations and companies.
The letter calls for “emergency use authorisation for all WHO-approved vaccines — Pfizer, Moderna, J&J and others — that have gone through stringent approval process globally, to ensure there is no vaccines divide in the country”.
Nasscom also pressed for quick deployment of data and artificial intelligence to “ensure effective access to data for insights and planning, across all states and key departments, on a priority basis”.
The FCRA amendments regulate the acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution by individuals, associations and companies.
As per the Act foreign contribution cannot be transferred to any other person unless such person is also registered to accept foreign contribution or has obtained prior permission to obtain foreign contribution.
The Bill amends this to prohibit the transfer of foreign contribution to any other person. The term ‘‘person’’ under the Act includes an individual, an association or a registered company.
Also, under the Act, a registered person must accept foreign contribution only in a single branch of a scheduled bank specified by them. However, they may open more accounts in other banks for the utilisation of the contribution.
The Bill amends this to state that foreign contribution must be received only in an account designated by the bank as “FCRA account” in such branch of the State Bank of India, New Delhi, as notified by the central government.
No funds other than the foreign contribution should be received or deposited in this account. The person may open another FCRA account in any scheduled bank of their choice for keeping or utilising the received contribution.
Some reports have indicated that the home ministry which is responsible for the grant and renewal of FCRA licences is planning to relax the FCRA rules for NGOs after May 31 when NGOs apply for licence renewal.
This will help the NGOs utilise foreign funding and donations to help Covid-19 patients during the nationwide public health emergency. The NGOs had been requesting the home ministry for such a waiver for the last six months, it added.
