Hindustan Times: New Delhi: Tuesday, June 25, 2013.
The Election
Commission has asked the government to prohibit political parties and candidates
from receiving anonymous donations by bringing about an amendment in the
Representation of People’s Act.
A major part
of the money received by parties and their candidates in elections remains
unaccounted as they claim to be donations from anonymous sources.
As per the
law, the parties have to provide details of donations worth Rs. 20,000 or more
for which they seek income tax exemption.
The
commission wants a change in the law to make it mandatory for political parties
to place its audited account of all donations received in a public domain.
Making public
the account of political parties was also the reason cited by the Central
Information Commission (CIC) for declaring six national parties as public
authorities under the Right To Information (RTI) Act.
As per the
documents accessed by HT through RTI, the commission has also said it should be
made mandatory for the parties to account for sale of coupons, a popular way of
receiving donations.
“Every coupon
should be accounted by issue of a proper receipt,” the commission said in a
communication to the law commission, which is analysing electoral reforms.
The
commission also wants that it should be mandatory for all contesting candidates
to maintain a separate bank account for all poll-related expenses.
“Any
transaction of more than Rs. 20,000 not shown in the bank account should be
treated as unaccounted,” the commission had said.
The election
watchdog has also suggested that 50% of expenses of the political parties for
electioneering should be treated as spending by the candidate in his elections
to provide a level-playing field during polls.
“It should
not be that candidates with weak financial background are not able to compete
with candidate with parties flush with funds,” an EC official explained.
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