EC tells govt to stop parties from receiving anonymous donations

The Election Commission has asked the government to prohibit political parties and candidates from receiving anonymous donations by bringing about an amendment in the Representation of People’s Act. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jun 25, 2013, 24:45:45 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

Prefer HTon Google

Share via

Copy link

The Election Commission has asked the government to prohibit political parties and candidates from receiving anonymous donations by bringing about an amendment in the Representation of People’s Act.

A major part of the money received by parties and their candidates in elections remains unaccounted as they claim to be donations from anonymous sources.

As per the law, the parties have to provide details of donations worth Rs. 20,000 or more for which they seek income tax exemption.

The commission wants a change in the law to make it mandatory for political parties to place its audited account of all donations received in a public domain.

Making public the account of political parties was also the reason cited by the Central Information Commission (CIC) for declaring six national parties as public authorities under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.

As per the documents accessed by HT through RTI, the commission has also said it should be made mandatory for the parties to account for sale of coupons, a popular way of receiving donations.

“Every coupon should be accounted by issue of a proper receipt,” the commission said in a communication to the law commission, which is analysing electoral reforms.

The commission also wants that it should be mandatory for all contesting candidates to maintain a separate bank account for all poll-related expenses.

“Any transaction of more than Rs. 20,000 not shown in the bank account should be treated as unaccounted,” the commission had said.

The election watchdog has also suggested that 50% of expenses of the political parties for electioneering should be treated as spending by the candidate in his elections to provide a level-playing field during polls.

“It should not be that candidates with weak financial background are not able to compete with candidate with parties flush with funds,” an EC official explained.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

Catch every big hit, every wicket with Crickit, a one stop destination for Live Scores, Match Stats, Infographics & much more. Explore now!

Stay updated with all top Cities including, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and more across India. Stay informed on the latest happenings in World News along with Delhi Election 2025 and Delhi Election Result 2025 Live, New Delhi Election Result Live, Kalkaji Election Result Live at Hindustan Times.