E-Paper
Political funding from unknown source still rampant: ADR report
The lack of transparency in political funding assumes significance ahead of the three-phase Bihar elections, which start on October 28
Transparency in political funding remains a paper tiger because ground realities reveal the rampant use of black money during elections in the country.
The total donations above ₹20,000 declared by 11 political parties in their contribution reports analysed by the Association for Democratic Rights (ADR), a not-for-profit organisation that works for electoral and political reforms, between 2014-15 and 2018-19 was ₹2777.97-crore.
The lack of transparency in political funding assumes significance ahead of the three-phase Bihar elections, which start on October 28.
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The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accounted for 80.12% of the total donations by collecting ₹2225.66 crore, followed by its rival Congress at 13.64%, or ₹379.02 crore, of the gross contributions.
The latest ADR report cited that only three of the 11 mainstream parties analysed had submitted their reports of donations to the Election Commission of India (ECI) within the stipulated time frame.
There were donations worth ₹325.23 crore that were deposited without any Permanent Account Number (PAN), which is issued by the Income Tax (I-T) Department. The BJP accounted for the lion’s share of unaccounted source of donations at ₹237.22 crore, or 72.94%, followed by the Congress ( ₹81.87 crore) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) ( ₹5.04-crore).
Besides, ₹15.75 crore was donated to the parties via incorrect PAN numbers.
The maximum number of instances of donations without or incorrect PAN numbers was reported in the assessment year of 2014-15, when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister for the first time.
There were also instances of undeclared donor names and addresses, missing mode of payment details etc.
The Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are the only three political outfits that have submitted their contribution reports to the ECI within the stipulated time frame. Eight parties were found to have delayed their submission at least once during the five-year period. The BJP delayed the submission each year between 17 and 30 days, the ADR report pointed out.
The Rashtriya Lok Samata Party’s (RLSP) contributions are not available on the ECI website, and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) submitted its report after the due date four times during the past five years, the ADR stated.
The ADR report published in January 2017, which analysed sources of funding of national and regional parties in the country between 2004-05 to 2014-15, had also underlined that the sources of income of big parties was largely unknown.
It had found that the lack of transparency was more acute with national parties, as compared to regional outfits.
At least 71% of the income of national parties during the analysed period was from unknown sources, while the corresponding figure for regional parties was 58%, the ADR data showed.
The income for all political parties for the 11-year period was estimated at ₹11,367.34 crore, including national and regional outfits at ₹9,278.30 crore and ₹2,089.04 crore, respectively.
The ADR report showed that Rs.1405.19 crore was declared by six national parties through known sources of donation worth above ₹20,000.
The ADR cited a Supreme Court (SC) order of September 13, 2013, which had stated that “no part of a candidate’s affidavit and political parties’ disclosure of donations above ₹20,000 should be left blank”.
The not-for-profit organisation has proposed that ECI should upload the detailed status of the donations on its website and take action against the defaulting parties.
Under section 29(1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, all political parties are required to report on contributions in excess of ₹20,000 in a financial year and submit it to the ECI by September 30 in a bid to avail 100% tax exemption.
