The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress got donations worth Rs.647 crores from “Unknown Sources” in 2015-16 according to a report which has been more than 77 per cent of the total funds received during the year. In 2015-16, the BJP’s income from unknown sources was Rs 460.78 crore while that of INC was Rs 186.04 crore.

Income from “unknown sources” refers to the donations that is less than Rs 20,000 which has not been declared since they have the levy for these funds not to be declared under the provisions of law. These are the income which is raised from sale of coupons, relief fund, miscellaneous income, voluntary contributions and contribution from meetings or morchas among others.

Voluntary contributions and coupon sales were the key income sources for the ruling BJP and the Congress while the two parties’ cumulative total income amounted to Rs 832.42 crore in fiscal 2016, according to the Association for Democratic Reforms(ADR).

“Total income of seven national parties for 2015-16 was Rs 1,033.18 crore, of which the parties spent Rs 754.45 crore and declared an unspent amount of Rs 278.73 crore (26.98 per cent unspent of total income),” the report added.