For the third year in a row, the two largest national parties – BJP and Congress – have delayed the submission of audit reports of income.
An analysis of income tax returns by national parties to the election commission of India by ADR states that till February 7, both the BJP and the Congress were yet to submit their audit reports for the financial year 2016-17.
The analysis by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) found that while BSP, CPM and AITCsubmitted their reports on time, NCP submitted it 22 days late. Both BJP and Congress are 99 days behind schedule. In the financial year 2015-16, the two were late by 209 and 252 days respectively while in 2014-15, the delay was by 133 and 153 days.
Interestingly, the BJP’s income for the year 2016-17 was the highest among all the national parties. The party had declared a total income of Rs 570.86 crore but is yet to submit its copy of income tax returns for 2016-17 to the election commission of India (ECI), stated ADR. The due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was October 30, 2017.
The five national parties – BSP, NCP, CPM, CPI and AITC, declared a total income of Rs 299.54 crore. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) declared a total income of Rs 173.58 crore during the financial year 2016-17, but spent only 30% percent (Rs 51.83 crore) of the total income. AITC (All India Trinamool Congress) declared a total income of Rs 6.39 crore during this period but spent an excess of Rs 17.87 crore (280 percent) over total income. The NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) also incurred an excess expenditure of Rs 7.732 crore over its total income of Rs 17.235 crore during FY 2016-17.
The report by ADR added, “National Parties have declared donations/contributions as one of their three main sources of income. BSP – Rs 75.26 crore, CPM – Rs 36.727 crore, NCP – Rs 6.62 crore and AITC- Rs 2.17 crore.”
Grant, donation or contributions of Rs 120.71 crore declared by the five national parties forms 40.30 percent of the total income of the parties during FY 2016-17. “Declaration of Rs 66.06 crore under Membership Fees by the parties forms 22 percent of the total income of the parties, while Bank Interest constitutes 17.87 percent of the total income of the parties during FY 2016-17,” the ADR report goes on to add.
The report also says that between FY 2015-16 and 2016-17, the income of BSP increased by 266.32 percent (Rs 126.195 crore) from Rs 47.385 crore during FY 2015-16 to Rs 173.58 crore during FY 2016-17 while the income of NCP increased by 88.63 percent (Rs 8.098 crore) from Rs 9.137 crore during FY 2015-16 to Rs 17.235 crore during FY 2016-17.
ADR has now recommended that “full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI”.
