BJP's assets rise by 22% in FY18, Congress reports 15% decline, says ADR

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) assets rose over 22 per cent in the financial year 2017-18 (FY18), compared to FY17, according to a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), an independent election watchdog.

The ADR has analysed the assets and liabilities declared by the seven national parties — the BJP, the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Communist Party of India (CPI), the CPI (Marxist) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC).

The assets include fixed assets, loans and advances, deposits made, investments, etc. Liabilities include bank borrowings, sundry creditors, overdrafts, other liabilities, etc.

The assets declared by national parties fall under six major heads — fixed assets, loans and advances, FDR (fixed deposit receipt)/deposits, TDS (tax deducted at source), investments and other assets. During FY17 and FY18, the national parties declared maximum assets under FDR/ deposits which amounted to Rs 1,442.19 crore (44.23 per cent of total assets) and Rs 1549.53 crore (44.83 per cent of total assets), respectively.

The total capital/reserve fund set aside by the national parties during FY17 was Rs 2,745.81 crore, and Rs 3,082.04 crore for FY18, after adjusting for liabilities for the respective years, from the total assets of the parties. For FY18, the BJP has the highest capital after declaring Rs 1,461.97 crore. In FY17, this was Rs 1,193.10 crore. For BSP, this was Rs 714.97 crore in FY18, from Rs 679.13 crore in FY17. For the CPM, it was Rs 479.58 crore in FY18 and Rs 458.22 crore in FY17. The Congress had Rs 400.15 crore in FY18 and Rs 393.02 crore in FY17. The capital for the TMC was Rs 18.45 crore in FY18 and Rs 15.05 crore in the preceding financial year. The NCP’s was Rs 5.33 crore and the CPI’s Rs 1.59 crore in FY18, and Rs 5.86 crore and Rs 1.43 crore in FY17, respectively.

The ADR said that national parties failed to adhere to the ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) guidelines that direct parties to declare details of the financial institutions, banks or agencies from whom loans were taken. It has recommended political parties change their auditors every three years.