Union home ministry's ‘error’ irks Sonia's trust

NEW DELHI: It may well be a case of oversight, but the 'negligence’ on the part of the Union home ministry has embarrassed the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust (RGCT) — a non-profit institution having Congress president Sonia Gandhi as chairperson of its board of trustees — since it erroneously figures in the list of the NGOs that did not file its statutory annual return for 2011-12.
Though the RGCT had filed its return for the year relating to receipt and utilization of foreign contribution, the ministry’s website shows it among the list of defaulters, comprising 709 other such organizations in Delhi.
A RGCT official told TOI, “The Trust had filed its statutory annual return for 2011-12 on December 27, 2012. We don’t know why the ministry keeps name of the organization in that list. It seems they did not update the website for long.”
The ministry has, so far, not made public the annual report of the NGOs’ affairs under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act for 2011-12, but recently put out a list (claiming it to be a new addition on website) comprising names of defaulters for the year.
As many as 17,719 NGOs from across the country figure in the list of organizations that have failed to submit their returns.
There is a provision of penalty if any organization which receives foreign fund fails to submit their return. Under this provision, non-furnishing of return up to 90 days after December 31 every year attracts a penalty of 2% of the amount received during the financial year or Rs 10,000, whichever is higher.
The amount of money the NGOs get every year as foreign contribution runs into thousands of crores. According to the 2010-11 FCRA annual report, 22,735 NGOs had received foreign funds to the tune of Rs 10,335 crore in that year with the highest Rs 2,016 crore being cornered by Delhi-based organizations, followed by Tamil Nadu (Rs 1,557 crore) and Andhra Pradesh (Rs 1,176).
The list of defaulters for 2011-12 shows, Andhra Pradesh (2,471) occupies the pole position, followed by Tamil Nadu (1,950), Uttar Pradesh (1,889), Maharashtra (1,856), West Bengal (1,275) and Karnataka (1,264).
Delhi had 709 such defaulters. The name of RGCT in the list certainly attracts attention as its board of trustees has big names like Sonia Gandhi as its chairperson and Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra as its trustees.
Its website claims that the Trust, set up in 2002, works in close collaboration with the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation, a sister organization and a think tank whose operations are aimed at influencing public policy, improving governance – local, national and international – and providing enlarged opportunities to the underprivileged and the deprived.