Only 10% of NGO’s declare financial details to the government: CBI to Supreme Court
New Delhi: Less than ten per cent of over 30 lakh Non-Government Organization’s functioning across the country have submitted their returns or their balance sheets and other financial details to the authorities, CBI has informed the Supreme Court. The dismal picture was presented by the CBI to the apex court on the basis of the income-expenditure statement of a total of 30, 81, 873 NGOs in 26 states and seven Union Territories.
A fresh affidavit by CBI maintained that approximately 9.33 per cent of the registered NGOs met the criteria of filing the returns. The CBI wanted the top court to regulate the NGOs by stipulating a condition that they would not be eligible to receive funds if they did not file balance sheets for three years indicating the purpose for which the amounts were spent.
In its affidavit, the CBI said that 26 states had filed their response giving details of the NGOs registered in the respective states. Of a total of 29,99,623 trusts which are functioning as NGOs, only 2,90,7897 file balance sheets every year.
There are 82,250 such NGOs registered in seven Union Territories of which only 50 have filed balance sheets. The list includes 5.48 lakh NGOs in Uttar Pradesh, 5.18 lakh in Maharashtra, 3.69 lakh in Kerala, 1.36 lakh in Rajasthan, 1.55 lakh in Tamil Nadu and 2.92 lakh in Andhra Pradesh.
When the matter came for hearing on Friday before a bench of Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice Amitava Roy, CBI said it would require another couple of months to compile all the information as it was expecting more information from some state governments.
The CBI asked the bench to pass some order to the governments of Karnataka, Odisha and Telangana to furnish all the information as per previous directions.
It said that out of the total 30,81,873 NGOs, 290873 have filed their annual returns and Karnataka, Odisha and Telangana have so far only provided the names and number of the voluntary bodies registered in the respective states without furnishing information about the balance-sheets.
