Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Friday has issued an analysis report, where it stated that national parties collected more than Rs 15,077.97 crore from unknown sources between 2004-05 and 2020-21.

ADR considered eight national parties and 27 regional parties for this analysis.

It said the total income of national and regional parties from unknown sources stood at 690.67 crore only in 2020-21.

“For FY 2020-21, eight national political parties have declared Rs 426.74 crore income from unknown sources and 27 regional parties received Rs 263.928 crore income from unknown sources,” it said.

In most cases, the share of donations above Rs 20, 000 declared by parties in their contribution reports does not match such income shown in their audit reports. This makes it difficult to arrive at an accurate figure of their income coming from unknown sources, the ADR said.

“At present, political parties are not required to reveal the name of individuals or organisations giving less than Rs. 20,000 nor those who donated via electoral bonds. As a result, more than 36% of the funds cannot be traced and are from ‘unknown’ sources. While the National and Regional Political Parties were brought under the RTI Act by the CIC ruling in June 2013, they have still not complied with the decision. Full transparency is, unfortunately, not possible under the current laws, and it is only the RTI that can keep citizens informed,” the ADR report added.