Assets of ruling Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) increased by 22 per cent in last one year while that of Indian National Congress (INC) saw a decline of 15 per cent.
The assets, liabilities and capital declared by the seven national political parties (BJP, INC, NCP, BSP, CPI, CPM and AITC) between FY 2016-17 and 2017-18 have been analysed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
A statement released by ADR said that the national political parties have flouted guidelines on several counts while filing their balance sheets with the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The average total assets declared by the national political parties during FY 2016-17 amounted to Rs 465.83 cr which increased to Rs 493.81 cr during FY 2017-18.
During FY 2016-17, the declared assets of BJP totalled Rs 1213.13 cr and increased by 22.27% to Rs 1483.35 cr during FY 2017-18.
INC and NCP are the only two national political parties to show a decrease in their annual declared assets. The total assets of INC between FY 2016-17 & 2017-18 decreased by 15.26% (from Rs 854.75 cr to Rs 724.35 cr) and that of NCP decreased from Rs 11.41 cr to Rs 9.54 cr (by 16.39%). The total assets of AITC increased from Rs 26.25 cr during FY 2016-17 to Rs 29.10 cr, an increase of 10.86%.
The total liabilities for FY 2016-17 declared by the national political parties totalled Rs 514.99 cr, an average of Rs 73.57 cr per party.
INC declared the highest liabilities of Rs 461.73 cr followed by BJP with Rs 20.03 cr. For FY 2017-18, highest liabilities of Rs 324.2 cr are declared by INC followed by Rs 21.38 cr in case of BJP and Rs 10.65 cr in case of AITC.
Between FY 2016-17 and 2017-18, four parties declared a decrease in liabilities, INC (decrease of Rs 137.53 cr), CPM (decrease of Rs 3.02 cr), NCP (decrease of Rs 1.34 cr) and Rs 55 lakhs liabilities decrease of AITC. BJP, CPI and BSP have declared an increase in liabilities during FY 2017-18.
ADR in its statement has said that the national political parties failed to adhere to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) guidelines that direct them to declare details of the financial institutions, banks or agencies from which loans were taken. The guidelines specify that the parties should state the "terms of repayment of term loans" on the basis of due date such as a year, 1-5 years or payable after 5 years.
It further said that details of fixed assets received as donation by the parties should be declared such as original cost of the asset, any additions or deductions, depreciation written off, cost of construction, etc. The same should also be declared of fixed assets purchased by the political parties - not all national political parties declared this information.
It said that the details of loans given by the parties in cash/ kind should be specified and if it constitutes more than 10% of the total loans, nature and amount of such loans should be declared specifically by the parties, again not declared by all national political parties.