Panaji: The Catholic Association of Goa (CAG) has submitted a memorandum to the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) examining the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026, strongly objecting to the draft legislation and demanding its complete withdrawal.According to the CAG, the proposed law “penalises self-reliance” by putting even financially independent organisations at risk. It argues that institutions that achieve financial independence and voluntarily surrender their FCRA certificate could still lose their assets. The CAG also says the Bill would fall disproportionately on minority-run institutions that have long supported education and healthcare in underserved regions such as Goa and northeast India.In its memorandum, the CAG describes the Bill, in its current form, as “fundamentally unconstitutional, contrary to democratic norms, and a grave threat to charitable, educational, and healthcare institutions run by religious and minority communities across India”.CAG president Cyril Aleixo Fernandes said the Bill would empower a designated authority to permanently take over assets of charitable institutions built using lawful foreign contributions, without requiring any wrongdoing and without notice, a hearing, or judicial adjudication. He said this would violate Articles 14, 21, 25, 26, and 300A of the Constitution of India.Fernandes further pointed out that the Bill deletes Section 15 of the FCRA 2010, which, he said, strictly limited management takeovers to cases where adequate funds were demonstrably unavailable. He said the proposed changes replace that safeguard with “unbridled administrative discretion”.He also objected to what he described as blanket immunity for govt officials. According to Fernandes, the proposed Section 43 would require prior central govt approval for any investigation into the designated authority, effectively placing officials beyond accountability.The CAG said the 2020 amendments to the FCRA had already comprehensively addressed national security and financial transparency concerns. It argued that the 2026 Bill “adds no regulatory value — only confiscatory powers that amount to institutional nationalisation disguised as regulation”.Fernandes said the memorandum’s “sole prayer” is the complete and unconditional withdrawal of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment Bill, 2026 from Parliament. He added that the CAG has offered to appear before the JPC to elaborate on its objections, if required.
