Story in numbers: Mystery of unknown sources of political party funding

Known sources have been defined as donations above Rs 20,000, whose donor details are available through contribution reports as submitted by national parties to the ECI

An analysis of the income-tax return (ITR) and donation statements filed with the Election Commission of India (ECI) shows that the sources of funding of national political parties remain largely unknown.
 
At present, political parties are neither required to reveal the names of individuals/organisations giving less than Rs 20,000 nor those who donated via electoral bonds. As a result, more than 36 per cent of the funds cannot be traced and are from ‘unknown’ sources.
 
While national and regional political parties were brought under the Right To Information (RTI) Act by a ruling in June 2013, they have