Dear Members,
Can you please let me know
1. if it is permissible to receive money from a foreign source towards the payment of school fees (of a semi orphan) considering the fact that the recipient school does not have FCRA.
2. what is the recourse when funds received almost 80 days ago are not being released in Delhi. All our paper work etc., is in place. The fund was not sent back either but just kept on hold.
Thanks and regards.
Oliver Rayi
Dear Oliver, First of all my apologies for delayed response, somehow due to SRRF’s workshop it got delayed. Hope you find the response useful.
1. Explanation 3 under Foreign Contribution definition treats fees as exempt from FC. It states that ‘any amount rec’d by any person from any foreign source in India by way of fee’…. shall be excluded from the definition of FC within the meaning of this clause. Thus on this basis any Fees rec’d for providing education by an educational institution should be considered as non-FCRA. However the example given for exemption from FC in the Act is where the fees is rec’d from a foreign student. Though in my view, as long as the money is for a student studying in an educational institution, it should not be considered as FC.
2. There can be several reasons for holding funds, Main reason being a new Purpose Code system has been started by RBI, which has caused a number of bottlenecks and a large number of persons are facing issues in receipt of funds coming from outside India. Suggest you follow-up with bankers / donor.
Hope above is useful.
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your detailed response. How do we confirm or have a fool-proof understanding of point 1 FC for Indian students? If there is a way around this it would be hugely beneficial to thousands of organisations whose FCRA hasn’t been renewed and are looking for ways to help students stranded mid way.
Please peruse if possible,
Thanks
Oliver