Think-tank Centre for Policy Research’s foreign funding license suspended
Months after the Income Tax raid, the Union Home Ministry has suspended the FCRA license of prominent public think-tank Centre for Policy Research (CPR) for six months over violation of laws, officials said on Wednesday. CPR, a non-governmental organization (NGO), in a statement, said it continues to cooperate fully with authorities, is in complete compliance with the law, and is routinely scrutinized and audited by government authorities, including the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
CPR was under scrutiny after Income Tax surveys on it and Oxfam India in September last year. The Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licence of CPR has been suspended over alleged violation of laws, the officials said. Oxfam’s FCRA license was suspended in January last year, after which the NGO filed a revision petition with the Home Ministry.
With the suspension of its license, given under the FCRA, the Centre for Policy Research will not be able to receive any funds from abroad. The officials said the donors of CPR included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania, the World Resources Institute and Duke University.
According to CPR’s website, its founder is Pai Panindiker and former members of the governing board include former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former Chief Justice of India, and the late, Y V Chandrachud.
The think-tank has been asked to give clarification and documents regarding FCRA funds received by it, the officials said. The FCRA license of CPR was last renewed in 2016 and was due for renewal in 2021.
In its statement, CPR said the Ministry of Home Affairs had intimated that its registration under the FCRA has been suspended for a period of 180 days. In September 2022, the Income Tax Department conducted a survey at CPR’s premises, and as part of the survey follow-up process, CPR received several notices from the department, it said. Following due process, detailed and exhaustive responses have been submitted to the department, the NGO said.
“CPR has and continues to cooperate fully with the authorities. We are in complete compliance with the law and are routinely scrutinized and audited by government authorities, including the Comptroller and Auditor General of India,” the statement said. CPR said it has annual statutory audits, and all its annual audited balance sheets are in the public domain and “there is no question of having undertaken any activity that is beyond our objects of association and compliance mandated by law”.
The CPR said it was founded in 1973 and it has been one of India’s leading policy research institutions, home to several eminent thinkers and policy practitioners whose contribution to policy in India is well recognized. It is an independent, non-partisan institution that conducts its work with complete academic and financial integrity, CPR said.
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Nobody who gives big time money is stupid nor is the one who receives that kind of money is stupid either. Such exchanges just cannot be without a hidden purpose. The involvement of big names is to gain respectability and to give cover to questionable activities. Getting foreign funding is legacy of the old days when the currency was not free. No US NGO gets foreign money why should we?