According to a recent ADR report, eight national mainstream parties have collected more than 15,000 crores in small donations of 20,000 or less over a 17-year period

• According to the ADR, its analysis was based on income tax returns and donation statements filed with the Election Commission of India
• The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alone had received 4,262 crores from the "sale of coupons" with anonymous donors. In 2020-21
• As per the report more than 36% of the total funds received by each party cannot be traced back to a known source

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) recently published a report on the cumulative income earned by national parties in India and discovered that in the majority of cases, the source of income is untraceable.

According to a recent ADR report, eight national mainstream parties have collected more than Rs 15,000 crores in small donations of Rs 20,000 or less over a 17-year period. Many of these donations cannot be traced back to a known source, and the parties have not revealed the identities of many of them. Furthermore, neither the Election Commission nor the income tax authorities have conducted any type of investigation into these accumulated donations over the years.

The national parties were the BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress, CPM, NCP, BSP, and National People's Party. Among the regional parties were the AAP, AGP, AIADMK, AIFB, AIMIM, and YSR-Congress.

According to the ADR, its analysis was based on income tax returns and donation statements filed with the Election Commission of India. It discovered that national parties received Rs 15,077.97 crore from unknown sources between 2004-05 and 2020-21 fiscal years. "For the fiscal year 2020-21, eight national political parties and 27 regional parties have declared that they received Rs 426.74 crore and Rs 263.928 crore from unknown sources, respectively," according to the report.

The Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) alone had received Rs 4,262 crores from the "sale of coupons" with anonymous donors. In 2020-21, Congress declared Rs 179 crores as income from unknown sources, accounting for 42 per cent of national parties' total income from unknown sources. Similarly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) declared 101 crores, as per the report.

According to the report, the national parties received a total of Rs 690 crores in income from unknown sources, while the rest of the country was left in the dark about their financial situation. Along with this, the Times of India reported that 325 crores were collected through electoral bonds. Contributors to electoral bonds are also not disclosed and are treated as income from an 'unknown source.'

The study revealed that the parties do not follow the Right to Information Act, and more than 36 per cent of the total funds received by each party cannot be traced back to a known source.

Media reports stated that many of these donations qualify for tax exemptions after the legitimacy of the income and expenditure is declared by the IT department's regulations. The report has reason to believe that the influx of such large sums of money into national party banks via unverified sources is cause for concern. Concerned about the source of the money used to fund India's elections, they have come to believe that "full transparency is, unfortunately, not possible under the current system."