Five national parties declared a total income of Rs 1,275.79 crores, but the Congress is yet to submit its audit report
GN Bureau | April 20, 2016
BJP, BSP, NCP, CPM and CPI have declared a total income of Rs 1,275.79 crore, collected from all over the country, during 2014-15. This is an increase of Rs 355.34 crore (or 39 percent) from the previous financial year, as revealed in an analysis conducted by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) based on the IT returns submitted by the political parties to the Election Commission of India.
The only national party which has, till date, not submitted its audit report is the Indian National Congress (INC). Meanwhile, CPI, CPM and BSP were the only three national parties that submitted their audit reports on time.
BJP showed the highest income at Rs 970.43 crore, forming 76.06 percent of the total income of national parties put together during 2014-15. On the other hand, CPI declared the least income of Rs 1.84 crore, forming a mere 0.14 percent of the combined total income. In fact, CPI is the only party whose income decreased, unlike other parties, by 24.28 percent (Rs 59 lakh).
Grants/donations/contributions or funds collected by parties was their top source of income, forming 88.73 percent of the total income. BJP declared the maximum income from donations amounting to Rs 940.39 crore followed by BSP with Rs 92.80 crore and NCP with Rs 38.82 crore.
However, the total income of political parties from unknown sources was Rs 685.36 crore, being 54 percent of the total income of the parties, the ADR report showed.
The unknown sources are income declared in the IT returns but without giving source of income from donations below Rs 20,000. Such unknown sources include sale of coupons, relief fund, miscellaneous income, voluntary contributions, contribution from meetings/morchas etc. The details of donors of such voluntary contributions are not available in the public domain.
The maximum expenditure for BJP has been towards advertisement and publicity, which amounted to Rs 471.89 crore followed by expenses towards travelling at Rs 209.57 crore. NCP spent the maximum of Rs 67.70 crore on election expenditure followed by Rs 13.36 crore on administrative and general expenses and Rs 1.30 crore on depreciation and amortisation expenses.
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