South’s ruling parties top regional parties with highest income from unknown sources

Three of these parties are also ruling the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The list also includes Odisha’s ruling BJD.

BJD (Rs 50.586 cr)

They have declared unknown incomes of Rs 89.15 crore (TRS), Rs 81.69 crore (TDP), Rs 74.75 crore (YSR-C), Rs 45.50 crore (DMK), Rs 50.5 crore (BJD)and Rs 18.5 crore (JD-S), the nonprofit Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) said after analyzing the IT returns and statements of donations filed by these parties with the Election Commission of India (ECI).

At present, political parties are not required to reveal the names of people or organisations donating below Rs. 20,000. As a result, a substantial amount of funds cannot be traced and are from ‘unknown’ sources, the ADR analysis said.

While the Central Information Commission brought the national parties under the RTI Act by a ruling in June 2013, they have still not complied with the decision. The analysis of IT returns and filings before ECI shows that the sources remain largely unknown.

During 2019-20, the total income of regional parties from unknown sources amounted to Rs 445.77 crore and constituted 55.50% of their total income as declared in their audit reports. About 95% or Rs 426.23 crore of this came from the electoral bonds, and regional parties collected Rs 4.9 crore from voluntary contributions, the ADR report said.

Twenty-three regional parties have not submitted their contribution reports for 2019-20. The contribution reports of AAP, IUML and LJP are available on the website, but their donations data shows discrepancies as declared in their annual audit report and contribution report (donations above Rs 20,000) for 2019-20. In view of this, the ADR did not cover these parties in its analysis.

During 2019-20, the total income of regional parties from unknown sources amounted to Rs 445.7 crore and constituted 55.50% of their total income as declared in their audit reports. As much as 95.6% or Rs 426.2 core of this came from electoral bonds, and regional parties collected Rs 4.9 crore, the report said.

Since a very large percentage of income of political parties cannot be traced to original donors, full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI, the ADR recommended.

Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan have already done this. As a result, it is not possible for more than half of the source of funds to be unknown. In 2019-20, 70.98% of income of national Parties was from unknown sources.