Holding nearly 70% of assets held by national political parties, the BJP declared assets worth Rs 4,847.78 crore in FY 2019-20, according to a report by electoral reforms advocacy group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) released on Friday.
Among seven national parties, BSP was ranked second at assets worth Rs 698.33 crore, followed by Congress (Rs 588.16 crore).
The report noted that total assets declared by the seven national and 44 regional parties in 2019-20 amounted to Rs 6,988.57 crore and Rs 2,129.38 crore, respectively.
Among regional parties, Samajwadi Party — at Rs 563.47 crore — held the most assets, followed by TRS (Rs 301.47 crore) and AIADMK (Rs 267.61 crore). The report said assets held by top 10 regional parties were worth Rs 2,028.715 crore, nearly 95.27% of total assets of all regional parties. The report took into account assets declared by political parties under six major heads: fixed assets, loans & advances, FDR/deposits, TDS, Investments and “other” assets.
The report noted that in 2019-20, Congress declared most total liabilities — Rs 49.55 crore, or 66.72% of total liabilities — followed by TMC at Rs 11.32 crore.
During 2019-20, the report noted, 65.48% of assets, amounting to Rs 5970.59 crore, of national parties were under FDs. Total liabilities declared by the seven national and 44 regional parties for 2019-20 amount to Rs 134.93 cr, it said.
“National and Regional Parties failed to adhere to ICAI guidelines that direct parties to declare details of the financial institutions, banks or agencies from whom loans were taken. The guidelines specify that the parties should state the ‘terms of repayment of term loans’ on basis of due date such as a year, 1-5 years or payable after 5 years,” the report noted.
