Chartered Accountant · ICAI M.No. 153926 · FRN 136869W
Not allowed without FCRA
Foreign contributions need FCRA registration or prior permission; otherwise it’s an offence.
Limited exceptions
Personal gifts from relatives abroad, within prescribed limits, are outside FCRA.
The line between a personal gift and a contribution
The reason this matters is that the consequences of getting it wrong are severe — accepting foreign contribution without FCRA can lead to penalties, confiscation of the funds, freezing of accounts and even prosecution. So the boundaries are worth knowing. An organisation with a definite charitable, social, educational or similar programme needs FCRA registration or prior permission to accept any foreign contribution for it; there’s no small-amount exemption for organisations. The genuine exceptions are narrow and mostly personal: an individual can receive a gift from a relative abroad (subject to intimation above a prescribed amount), and money earned as salary, fees or for goods and services in the ordinary course of business from a foreign source is treated as income, not a foreign contribution. Funds received from a foreign source routed through another Indian entity don’t escape FCRA — the character of the money follows it. Practically, an NGO that finds foreign money coming in should pause and regularise it through registration or prior permission rather than accept it and explain later. If a foreign grant is anticipated, the FCRA route should be set up before the funds arrive. Confirm the current exceptions and limits, which the FCRA framework defines tightly.