Regional political parties got Rs 108 crore in donations above Rs 20k

Section 29C of the Representation of People Act, 1951 mandates that political parties submit their contribution details in excess of Rs 20,000 to the Election Commission.

New Delhi: Regional political parties received nearly Rs 108 crore in 2015-16 in donations in excess of Rs 20,000, the limit above which funding sources have to be disclosed, says a report.

Shiv Sena tops the list with a total Rs 86.84 crore collected in a donation during 2015-16, while AAP received Rs 6.605 crore during the same period, Delhi-based think-tank Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report released today.

"The total amount of donations declared by Shiv Sena is about 81 per cent of the total donations received by all the regional parties together which have been considered for the report during the same period," it said.

With regard to the total number of donations, AAP leads with 1,187 donations from individuals and corporates, while Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) declared a total 571 contributions followed by Shiv Sena with 143 and TDP 75.

Section 29C of the Representation of People Act, 1951 mandates that political parties submit their contribution details in excess of Rs 20,000 received from any person or company to the Election Commission of India (ECI) annually, in order to enjoy 100 per cent tax exemption.

"The total amount of donations above Rs 20,000 declared by the Regional Parties was Rs 107.62 crore, from 2,249 donations which amounts to an average of Rs 4.79 lakh per donation," it said.

The report, jointly prepared by ADR and National Election Watch (NEW), said that no donations have been declared by AIADMK, BJD, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Naga People's Front (NPF) and RLD during 2015-16.

A total of 26 regional parties have defaulted in the submission of their donations report to the ECI during 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Out of the 26 parties, 21 parties have not filed their reports for both the financial years while 5 parties had filed for 2014-15 but failed to submit for 2015-16.

A comparison of donations received by regional parties between 2014-15 and 2015-16 shows that the overall donations of the 21 regional parties decreased by Rs 27.24 crore or 20.20 per cent.

"AIUDF, DMDK, JDS, PMK and Shiv Sena are the five regional parties which have declared an increase in the amount of donations received between 2014-15 and 2015-16," it said.

PMK, AAP, Shivsena, IUML, DMDK and AIUDF were the only regional parties which declared collecting donations in cash.

"Rs 3.326 crore in cash donations formed 3.08 per cent of the total contributions declared by the regional parties from 784 donations," the report said.

"Out of 16 regional parties which had declared receiving donations above Rs 20,000, 9 parties; Shiv Sena, AAP, PMK, YSR-Congress, AIUDF, IUML, MNS, SAD and DMDK have not declared PAN details of 1,567 donations through which the parties collected a total of Rs 6.79 crore," it added.