Business Standard: New Delhi: Wednesday,
January 25, 2017.
The Association
for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Tuesdayappealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi
to fulfill his promise of making political funding more transparent, as a means
to strike at the root of black money.
It said the
government’s push towards a digital and “less-cash” economy after
demonetisation should be implemented by political parties, which would make it
possible to know the source of each paisa received as donations by political
parties.
The ADR, a
non-governmental organisation, appealed to political parties to only accept
digital payments. Its founding member, Jagdeep Chhokar, said demonetisation has
had very little impact on the finances of political parties.
The ADR has
analysed income-tax returns and statements of six national and 51 regional
recognised parties filed with the Election Commission between 2004-05 and
2014-15. It said the analysis reveals that in this 11-year period, 71 per cent
of political donations to political parties were received from unknown sources
and cannot be traced.
According to
the current law, donations above Rs 20,000 are the only “known sources” of
income. “Unknown sources” are income declared in the I-T returns by political
parties without giving any source of income, for donations below Rs 20,000.
These unknown sources include sale of coupons, relief fund, miscellaneous
income, voluntary contributions and contribution for meetings. Other known
sources of income include sale of moveable and immoveable assets, membership
fee, bank interest and sale of publications.
ADR’s
analysis suggested the share of donations from unknown sources to the Congress
witnessed 83 per cent increase in the 11-year period. This increase was 65 per
cent for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 94 per cent for Samajwadi Party and
86 per cent for Shiromani Akali Dal. The growth in income from unknown sources
increased 313 per cent in 11 years. It was especially sharp in the case of
regional parties at 652 per cent.
The ADR also
found that income-tax returns of 42 out of 51 regional parties analysed were
unavailable for at least one financial year. There were 12 regional parties
that have never submitted details of their donations. Of all the parties, the
Bahujan Samaj Party was the only one to consistently declare receiving “nil”
donations above Rs 20,000. The ADR said that 100 per cent of BSP’s donations
came from unknown sources.
The ADR
demanded that political parties make available for public scrutiny full details
of donors under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. This is the law in Bhutan,
Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan. It also
demanded that any organisation that receives foreign funding should not be
allowed to support or campaign for any candidate or political party. The ADR
said it supports the Election Commission’s recommendation that details of all
donors who donate above Rs 2,000 be declared in public domain.
Chhokar said
there was a need to constitute an independent body approved by the Comptroller
and Auditor General to audit the accounts of political parties annually. The
Income Tax Department was unable to perform such a task as the officials dare
not go against the government of the day.