According to the ADR, in 2020-21, national and regional parties collected a total of Rs 690.67 crore from unknown sources. The organization analyzed funds received from unknown sources by eight national and 27 regional parties.
National parties include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress, Trinamool Congress (TMC), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and National People’s party (NPP).
On the other hand, regional Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), DMK Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), All India AIADMK Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Shiv Sena, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), Janata Dal (United), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) are prominent.
The analysis is based on income tax returns (ITRs) filed by the parties and affidavits regarding donations before the Election Commission of India (ECI). It has been revealed that between the financial years 2004-05 to 2020-21, the national parties received Rs 15,077.97 crore from unknown sources.
“In the financial year 2020-21, eight national parties have reported receiving Rs 426.74 crore from undisclosed sources, while in case of 27 regional parties, the amount is Rs 263.928 crore,” the ADR said.
According to the organization, in the financial year 2020-21, the Congress has disclosed receipt of Rs 178.782 crore from unknown sources, which is 41.89 percent of the total amount received by the national parties from unknown sources.
According to the ADR, the BJP has declared Rs 100,502 crore as income from unknown sources, which is 23.55 per cent of the total amount received by the national parties from unknown sources.
The top five regional parties that received the highest amount from undisclosed sources are YSR-Congress (Rs 96.2507 crore), DMK (80.02 crore), BJD (67 crore), MNS (Rs 5.773 crore) and AAP (5.4 crore), the organization said. Are included.
According to the ADR, in 2020-21, 47.06 percent of the total amount of Rs 690.67 crore received by national and regional parties from unknown sources was received from electoral bonds.
The organization said that between the financial years 2004-05 to 2020-21, the Congress and the NCP raised a total of Rs 4,261.83 crore from the sale of coupons.
According to the ADR, there are several discrepancies in the audit and donation reports of seven political parties for the financial year 2020-21. These parties include TMC, CPI, AAP, SAD, Kerala Congress (M), All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).
According to the report, the ADR said that in most cases the share of donations in excess of Rs 20,000 declared by the parties in their contribution reports does not match the income shown in their audit reports.
The ADR said this makes it difficult to arrive at an accurate figure of their income from unknown sources.
The ADR report said, “At present there is no need to disclose the names of individuals or organizations giving less than Rs 20,000 to political parties. Nor those who donated through electoral bonds. As a result, more than 36 per cent 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’s decision in June 2013, they have still not complied with the decision,” the report said. Unfortunately, complete transparency is not possible under the current laws and it is only RTI that can inform citizens.’
