by Sangeeta Rasaily, Fu Shuangqi

    NEW DELHI, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- India is trying to amend its law on foreign donation as an effort to prevent some of huge amount of money from flowing to terrorist organizations and unauthorized religious or political bodies.

    The Indian Parliament has set up a committee to look into the draft amendment of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).Indian non-governmental organizations (NGO), religious bodies and individuals receive an astonishing 70 billion rupees (1.56billion U.S. dollars) in grants from several charities every year. The money will be funneled through the banks officially once the recipient institution obtains a FCRA certificate from the government.

    India's foreign contributions have increased by nearly 10billion rupees (222 million U.S. dollars) annually in the past three years.

    Most of the donors are Christian or Islamic missionaries from the United States, France, Saudi Arabia and Germany while major recipients in India are naturally religious missions or associations whose motto includes religion or education. For long there have been apprehensions about where the money has gone while nearly 32,000 NGOs and social organizations in India have received foreign funding.

    Would it be used by terror outfits, religious organizations for conversions or misused by individuals to live a life of luxury? A recent case has warned the Indian government about the possible risk in this field.

    In mid January India's Central Bureau of Investigation had accused Abdul Hamid Rahmani and his organization Abdul Kalam AzadIslamic Awakening Centre of illegally receiving foreign donations. The organization, founded in Delhi in 1985, had operated several bank accounts in Saudi Arabia and Delhi receiving millions of donations in the past two decades but it has never disclosed any information about its bank accounts to Indian government. In 2002 it had received one single donation of 90 million rupees (2 million U.S. dollars) from New York.

    The Indian security agencies did not learn that until a Delhibank reported the transaction.

    The existing law, first enacted in 1976, has several obvious shortcomings, including no restriction on further transfer of funds, no provision for cancellation of registration once granted, no provision for prohibiting foreign contribution to organizations actively engaged in electronic propagation and no restriction on amount that can be utilized for administrative purpose. It also has no express provision for information about a single bank account.

    "The FCRA, 1976 was conceived thirty years ago when the demand for foreign exchange was high, amount of foreign contribution was low, number of recipients were small and modes of communication and transmission were not as developed. We have been suggesting a change for quite some time," said Diljeet Titus, the lawyer whose law firm Titus and Associates consulted for the government about the amendment bill.

    According to the new bill being reviewed by the Parliament, the organizations will be asked to give details about the receipts and a nation-wide database will be set up for receipts of foreign remittances above a specified amount.

    The new law will not only regulate foreign donation but also ban acceptance and utilization of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality for any activities harmful to the national interest. This might reduce the chances for government officials to travel abroad and accept hospitality as they may be asked to explain.

    The new bill will also affect the NGOs who have got used to spending more in administrative expenses than real relief works. According to a survey done by the Ministry of Home Affairs, about 15 percent of 62.5 billion rupees (1.39 billion U.S. dollars)received in the fiscal year of 2004-05 went to establishment expenses while 10.48 percent was spent on relief and rehabilitation works.

    Under the new bill, the companies or associations engaged in producing or broadcasting audio-visual news and current affairs, correspondents, columnists, cartoonists and editors will be banned from getting foreign donation. So will be the organizations of political nature.

    More than 255 NGOs have teamed up to oppose the new provisions of the bill especially the one that ask them to re-registration every five years.