NEW DELHI: For the third year in a row, the two largest national parties -
BJP and
Congress - have delayed the submission of audited reports of income. An analysis of income tax returns by national parties to the Election Commission of India by ADR states that till February 7, both BJP and Congress were yet to submit their audit reports for the fiscal 2016-17.
The analysis by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) found that while BSP, CPM and
Trinamool Congress submitted their reports on time,
NCP submitted it 22 days late. Both BJP and Congress are 99 days behind schedule. In the financial year 2015-16, the two were late by 209 and 252 days respectively while in 2014-15, the delay was by 133 and 153 days.
Interestingly, BJP's income for the year 2016-17 was the highest among all the national parties. The party had declared a total income of about Rs 571 crore but is yet to submit its copy of income tax returns for 2016-17 to the election commission of India (ECI), stated ADR. The due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was October 30, 2017.
Five national parties, BSP, NCP, CPI(M), CPI and Trinamool Congress, declared a total income of almost Rs 300 crore. BSP declared a total income of Rs 173 crore during the financial year 2016-17, but spent only 30% of the total income. Trinamool declared a total income of Rs 6 crore during this period but spent almost Rs 18 crore. The NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) also incurred an excess expenditure of close to Rs 8 crore over its total income of Rs 17 crore during FY 2016-17.
Grant, donation or contributions of close to Rs 121 crore declared by the five national parties forms 40% of the total income of the parties during FY 2016-17.
"Declaration of Rs 66.06 crore under Membership Fees by the parties forms 22% of the total income of the parties, while Bank Interest constitutes 17.87% of the total income of the parties during FY 2016-17," the ADR report goes on to add.
The report also says that between FY 2015-16 and 2016-17, the income of BSP increased by over 266% (Rs 126 crore) from Rs 47 crore during FY 2015-16 to Rs 173.5 crore during FY 2016-17 while the income of NCP increased by almost 89% (Rs 8 crore) from Rs 9 crore during FY 2015-16 to Rs 17 crore during FY 2016-17.
