Executive Summary
Analysis of Total Income & Expenditure of Political Parties of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry,
FY 2015-16
Total income & expenditure of political parties
- The income of political parties during FY 2015-16 is calculated from their IT returns filed annually with the Income Tax Department.
- BJP has the highest total income of Rs 570.86 cr from all over India in FY 2015-16, followed by INC whose total income during the same period is Rs 261.56 cr and CPM whose total income is Rs 107.48 cr.
- Amongst regional parties, DMK reported the highest income of Rs 77.63 cr followed by AIADMK that has an income of Rs 54.938 cr in 2015-16.
- AIADMK and DMK have not spent 87.08% and 91.11% of their total income, respectively, in FY 2015-16.
- Overall, the Regional Parties of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (AIADMK, DMK, PMK, DMDK and AINRC) declared 82.37% of their total income, i.e. Rs 116.84 cr, to be ‘remaining unspent’.
Graph : Total Income and expenditure of Regional Parties of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, FY 2015-16
Top sources of income of political parties during FY 2015-16
- 9 out of 11 parties have received more than 50% of their total income from only one source of income e.g. BJP has received 93.97% of its total income from ‘Voluntary Contributions’ (Rs 536.41 cr), solely, while BSP has received 77.78% of its total income from ‘Other Income’ (Rs 36.85 cr).
- Amongst regional parties, AINRC, PMK, DMK and DMDK, have received more than 86% of their total income from only one source.
- 70.51% of total income of AIADMK or Rs 38.376 cr was from “Collection from Issuance of Forms” while DMK received 93.91% of its total income worth Rs 72.9 cr from ‘Surplus from Specific Fund’.
Graph : Top sources of Income of Political Parties of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, FY-2015-16
Top items of expenditure of National and Regional Parties during FY 2015-16
- The most common items of expenditure across parties includes expenses towards Elections & Publicity and Administrative & General expenses. These are also the heads, which saw the highest expenditure in FY 2015-16.
- Amongst Regional Parties, 4 out of 5 parties of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have incurred more than 74% of their total expenditure only on top two items.
- DMK has spent 58.55% of its total expenditure, worth Rs 4.04 cr, which is also the highest, on ‘Party Development expenses’ (Rs 2.36 cr) and ‘Depreciation (as per fixed assets sch)’ (Rs 1.68 cr).
- AINRC has incurred highest expenditure of Rs 2.90 lakhs on ‘other expenses’ that is 38.67% of its total expenditure.
Graph : Top items of expenditure of Political Parties of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, FY-2015-16
Analysis of Voluntary Contributions received by political parties of
Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, FY 2015-16
Donations above Rs 20,000 received by Regional Parties of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry from all over India, FY 2015-16
- AIADMK, the ruling party of Tamil Nadu, has declared receiving no donations above Rs 20,000 from any donor in 2015-16.
- AINRC, which is the main opposition party in Puducherry, has not submitted its Contribution Report to the ECI, for FY 2015-16.
- DMK has received the highest number and amount of donations from all over India, in comparison to other regional parties.
- Donations received by DMK from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry is Rs 70.78 cr, which is 98.79% of Rs 71.65 cr, that DMK has received from all over India in FY 2015-16.
- Donations received by PMK from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry is Rs 2.37 cr, which is 89.77% of Rs 2.64 cr, that PMK has received from all over India in FY 2015-16.
Graph: Donations received by Regional Parties of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry from all over India, FY 2015-16
Total number and amount of Donations received by National and Regional Parties from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, FY 2015-16
- DMK has received the highest overall donations from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, worth Rs 70.78 cr through 737 donations for FY 2015-16, followed by PMK, which has received the second highest amount of donations of Rs 2.37 cr from 504 donations.
- Amongst National Parties, BJP has received the highest overall donations worth Rs 0.94 crores, followed by INC that has received Rs 0.69 crores from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
Graph: Donations received by National and Regional parties of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, FY 2015-16
Mode of payment of donations received by Political Parties from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, FY 2015-16
- 57.72% of the total donations received by national and regional parties from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, in FY 2015-16, is in cash.
- DMK, PMK and DMDK are the three political parties that have declared receiving donation in cash.
- It is to be noted that 100% of donations received by PMK (above Rs 20,000) were by cash (Rs 2.64 cr).
Chart: Mode of Payment of donations declared by political parties from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, FY- 2015-16
Declaration of PAN details in donations received by Political Parties from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, FY 2015-16
- 62.14% of the total donations or Rs 46.59 cr received by National and Regional parties from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry through 936 donations do not have PAN details.
- None of the donations received by CPI, PMK and DMDK from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during FY 2015-16 has PAN details.
Observations and Recommendations of ADR
Observations
- The Regional Parties of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (AIADMK, DMK, PMK, DMDK and AINRC) declared 82.37% of their total income, i.e. Rs 116.84 cr, to be ‘remaining unspent’. It is to be noted that the elections to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry Assemblies were held in May, 2016.
- AIADMK, the ruling party of Tamil Nadu, has declared receiving no donations above Rs 20,000 from any donor from all over India in 2015-16. It is to be noted that the party, in its audit report for FY 2015-16, has not stated any income from ‘Voluntary contributions’ or ‘Donations’.
- AINRC, which is the main opposition party in Puducherry, has not submitted its Contribution Report to the ECI, for FY 2015-16 but the party in its audit report has stated that it received a total of Rs 76 lakhs as ‘Grants/ Donations/ Contributions’ which was also its only source of income for FY 2015-16.
- 100% of PMK’s donations above Rs 20,000 i.e. Rs 2.64 cr was in cash. 3 National Parties (BJP, INC, CPI) and 3 Regional Parties (DMK, PMK, DMDK) received 57.72% of the total donations from Tamil Nadu & Puducherry in cash. This amounted to Rs 43.28 cr via 997 donations.
- None of the donations received by CPI, PMK and DMDK from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during FY 2015-16 has PAN details. Thus PAN details are unavailable of 528 donations (Rs 2.566 cr).
- All the top 10 donations to DMK during FY 2015-16 have been made via multiple donations by various District level Secretaries of the party. It has been declared that the donations were ‘received’ by the Secretaries in cash or cheque without declaring the details of the individual donors who made these donations. Such declarations are not in the interest of transparency of finances of political parties.
Recommendations
- The Supreme Court gave a judgment on September 13, 2013 declaring that no part of a candidate’s affidavit should be left blank. Similarly, no part of the Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000 should be blank.
- Full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI. Some countries where this is done include Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan. In none of these countries is it possible for 80% of the source of funds to be unknown, but at present it is so in India.
- The National and regional political parties must provide all information on their finances under the Right to Information Act. This will only strengthen political parties, elections and democracy.
Disclaimer
Source for the data used in the report are the Contribution Statements submitted by the political parties to the Election Commission of India. These can be accessed from http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/PolPar/ContributionReports. aspx and their IT Returns which can be accessed from myneta.info/party.
While all effort has been made to ensure that the information is in keeping with what is mentioned in the statements submitted by the political parties, in case of discrepancy between information in this report and that given in their statements, the information reported by the political parties should be treated as correct. Association for Democratic Reforms, National Election Watch and their volunteers are not responsible or liable for any damage arising directly or indirectly from the publication of this report.
Contact Details
Prof Sudarsan Padmanabhan State Coordinator, Tamil Nadu Election Watch (TNEW)
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Mr P. Joseph Victor Raj State Coordinator, Puducherry Election Watch (PEW) |
Media and Journalist Helpline +91 80103 94248 Email: [email protected] |
Maj. Gen Anil Verma (Retd.) Head – NEW & ADR +91 11 4165 4200 +91 88264 79910 |
Prof Jagdeep Chhokar IIM Ahmedabad Founder Member– NEW & ADR +91 99996 20944
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Prof Trilochan Sastry IIM Bangalore Founder Member– NEW & ADR +91 94483 53285
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