NEW DELHI: The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in its analysis of political contributions and donations has found that out of 11 political parties analysed, only 3 — the INC, BSP and NCP — had submitted their donations reports to the Election Commission in the stipulated time period every year between 2014-15 and 2018-19.
The remaining eight political parties have delayed their submission at least once during the five-year period.
The report says that BJP delayed the submission of its contribution report each year by 17-30 days.
While the contribution reports of RLSP are unavailable on the EC website and those of the LJP were submitted after the due date for four of the five-year period. Besides, there was incomplete or incorrect information about the donation details.
The total amount of donations, above Rs 20,000, declared by the 11 political parties analysed in their contribution reports was Rs 2,777.97 cr. Between FY 2014-15 and 2018-19, 80.12% or Rs 2,225.66 cr of the total donations were declared by the BJP followed by the INC which received 13.64% of the total contributions.
Between FY 2014-15 and FY 2018-19, the analysed political parties did not declare the donor name in case of 217 donations. Of this, BJP declared the highest number of donations (175) without donor name. Moreover, the 11 political parties did not declare the complete address details of 5,815 donors — the address details were undeclared for 5,799 donors while they were incomplete for 16 of them.
The BJP and RLSP did not declare the address of a total of 4,935 and 558 donors, respectively, for the period between FY 2014-15 and 2018-19.
From FY 2014-15 to 2018-19, PAN details of 3,468 donations were not declared while the details provided in case of 128 donations were incorrect.
The highest number of such donations having undeclared or incorrect PAN details was declared by BJP (1,899) followed by Congress (678) and RLSP (558), said the report.
Besides, these political parties declared 3,468 donations of Rs 325.23 cr without declaration of PAN. BJP declared the highest donations (1,837) without PAN amounting to Rs 237.22 cr or 72.94% of the total such donations followed by Congress (Rs 81.87 cr) and CPI (Rs 5.04 cr).
The highest value of such donations was declared by these parties during the FY 2014-15 (the year of Parliamentary elections) of Rs 275.75 cr (705 donations).
What rules say
Under Section 29C (1) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, political parties are required to prepare annual reports providing details of contributions in excess of Rs 20,000 in a financial year to the Election Commission.
This is done so that the parties can avail 100% tax exemption.