In a new report, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Tuesday said that the ruling BJP declared Rs 2,642.63 crore as donations/income from unknown sources in 2019-20, the highest among the national parties, which also include the Congress, the NCP, the CPI, the CPI(M), the TMC and the BSP. The unknown sources are income declared in the IT returns but without mentioning the source of income for donations below Rs 20,000.
Such unknown sources include ‘donations through Electoral Bonds’, ‘sale of coupons’, ‘relief fund’, ‘miscellaneous income’, ‘voluntary contributions’, ‘contribution from meetings/morchas’. The details of donors of such voluntary contributions are not available in the public domain.
The Congress received Rs 526 crore as donations from unknown sources which is 15.57 per cent of the total income of the national parties from unknown sources during the same period.
“National parties collected Rs 3,377.41 crore from unknown sources in the financial year 2019-20, which is 70.98 per cent of the total income of the parties. Out of the Rs 3,377.41 crore as income from unknown sources, share of income from Electoral Bonds was Rs 2,993.826 crore or 88.643 per cent,” the ADR said in its report .