Foreign Contribution as per Section of the Foreign Contribution means the donation delivery or transfer made by any foreign source Association as per Section of the Foreign Contribution means an association of individuals whether incorporated or not having an office in India and includes a society whether NGO registered under the Societies Registrations Act, 1860 or not and any other organization by whatever name called.
Two or more persons can form an association by resolving to act as an association.
The following forms of associations are recognized in law of any article, not being an article given to a person as a gift for his personal use if the market value in India of such article on the date of such gift does not exceed one thousand rupees of any currency whether Indian or foreign of any foreign security as defined in clause of section 2 of the Foreign Exchange NGO Management Act 1999.
A donation delivery or transfer of any article currency or foreign security referred to in this clause by any person who has received it from any foreign source either directly or through one or more persons shall also be deemed to be foreign contribution within the meaning of this clause. It also includes trust registration to avail or grant fund from outsourcing.
The definition of foreign contribution as contained in the Act included only the donation delivery or transfer made by any foreign source. It did not include donation or contribution received by an organization from another organization from out of foreign contribution received by the letter society organization.
The definition was enlarged to include such contributions also for the purpose of tracing the utilization of foreign contribution down the line.
Foreign contribution means the donation, delivery or transfer, made by any foreign source of any,
a) article, not given to a person as a gift for personal use, if the market value, in India, of such article, exceeds one thousand rupees;
b) currency, whether Indian or foreign; or,
c) foreign security i.e. fcra, This excludes earnings from the foreign client(s) by an NGO/association in lieu of goods sold or services rendered by it as this is a transaction of commercial nature.
Contributions made by a citizen of India living in another country (i.e. Non-Resident Indian), from his personal savings, through the normal banking channels, is not treated as foreign contribution. However, while accepting any donations from such NRI, it is advisable to obtain his passport details to ascertain that he/she is an Indian passport holder. It is advisable to take help from ngo consultancy. An association having a definite cultural, economic, educational, religious or social program can receive foreign contribution after it obtains the prior permission of the Central Government, or gets itself registered with the Central Government.