59% of donations to five national parties from unknown sources: ADR

About Rs 673 crore, which is 79.68% of the total income of the parties, came from unknown sources in 2013-14

This article has been modified. Please see the clarification at the end.

Not only have the five national political parties resisted investigation or audit into their sources of funding, 59 per cent of all donations to these parties in 2013-14 came from unknown sources, whose names, nature of contribution and the currency in which the contribution was made remains out of the public domain.

About Rs 673.08 crore, which is 79.68 per cent of the total income of the parties, came from unknown sources in 2013-14. The general elections were held in 2014.

In a study, the Association of Democratic Reform (ADR) reveals that in November 2014, the Election Commission of India (ECI) made it mandatory for all political parties to submit audited reports of the income and expenditure incurred during FY14, as declared in their income tax returns for that year. The due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was November 30, 2014. Of the six national parties, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist or CPI(M) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) submitted their audited reports.

The Congress submitted its report under protest, on the grounds that according to the Representation of People's Act, the ECI had no powers to demand such a report. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) asked for time till July 9, 2015, to submit the report but is yet to file it. The accounts show that the five national parties, whose I-T returns are available in the public domain, have declared in 2013-14, a total income of Rs 844.71 crore, collected from all over India. The Congress has shown the highest income them with a total income of Rs 598 crore during FY14. This formed 70.8 per cent of the total income of all national parties together during FY14. The CPI(M) declared the second highest income of Rs 121.87 crore, which forms 14.43 per cent of the total income of the national parties.

A comparison of total donations shows that only 41 per cent of the total donations of the parties came from voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000. A total of Rs 111.29 crore (59 per cent) of the total donations to national parties was collected during FY14 from donors whose details are not available in the public domain.

The unknown sources are income declared in the IT returns but without giving source of income for donations below Rs 20,000. Such unknown sources include 'sale of coupons', 'purse money', 'relief fund', 'miscellaneous income', 'voluntary contributions', 'contribution from meetings/morchas', etc. The details of donors of such voluntary contributions are not available in the public domain.

ADR says elections can be democratic, transparent and fully representative only when parties declare all sources of funding. The organisation says, for instance, that parties submit contribution statement declaring the names and other details of donors who contributed Rs 20,000 and above. In the interests of full disclosure, these unknown sources of funds should be made public.

CLARIFICATION
An earlier version of this article had wrongly stated that 59 per cent of all funding to national political parties came from unknown sources. The correct position, according to a  report prepared by the Association of Democratic Reform, is that 59 per cent of all donations to national political parties came from unknown sources. The error is regretted.