BJP, Congress refuse to reveal source of funds received from ‘unknown’ donors

Most of the income of political parties, particularly BJP and Congress, comes from various unknown donors. These grand parties generate a huge sum of money from a category of donors whose accounts are not provided by them and have refused to divulge their source of funds.

Updated: August 23, 2016 2:35 PM IST

By Sandhya Dangwal

BJP, Congress refuse to reveal source of funds received from ‘unknown’ donors

New Delhi, Aug 23: The main aim of the present government is to boost the economy of the nation and maintain transparency in its workflow so that people can track where the money goes and comes from. A shocking revelation by TOI stated that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ranked the highest in money generation followed by Congress. Most of the income of political parties, particularly these two, comes from various unknown donors. These grand parties generate a huge sum of money from a category of donors whose accounts are not provided by them.

Many efforts are being made by the government to uproot black money and take a step forward for bringing transparency in the system. However, it’s an irony that these big, old parties have refused to divulge their source of funds. In income tax parlance, the money received by unknown sources is termed as ‘black money’. However, political parties are claiming tax exemptions as well for such unknown income. Most of these contributions are in cash. (ALSO READ: Black Money: Don’t want to be big brother watching, says Finance Minister Arun Jaitley)

As per reports by TOI, being significant cash generators in the economy, BJP and Congress together account for more than 80% of total funds collected by parties from all sources.  It was reported that BJP’s income in 2014-15 was Rs 970 crore and that of Congress Rs 765 crore. In the previous financial year, all national parties together declared a total income of Rs 1,519 crores. BJP again had the highest share of Rs 674 crore while Congress collected Rs 598 crore.

The refusal to reveal their source of funds has raised many questions. Who are these unknown donors? And why are these parties not revealing their details? It was mentioned in reports by TOI that more than 70% of all funds collected by parties are from unknown sources.(ALSO READ:Black Money: Income Tax authorities unearth Rs 13000 crore from offshore bank accounts)

According to reports, recently the Delhi high court rejected the plea made by the Congress party and taxed it Rs 25 crore. The party had refused to submit any audited account or reveal the source of their income, Congress, later moved the Supreme Court. Congress was slammed with unaccounted money of Rs 25 crore that the party had generated in 1994-95. When it failed to explain the source, the Delhi HC had in its judgment by a two-judge bench in March this year asked the party to pay tax. (ALSO READManmohan Singh questions Narendra Modi over black money, foreign policy & relation with Pakistan)

Also, to add on, Congress had collected about Rs 1,000 crore during 2004 to 2009, the period of UPA-1, as stated by TOI. The High Court bench of Justices S Murlidhar and Vibhu Bakhru called the case “symbolic of the general lack of transparency and accountability of political parties in this country”. Taking into consideration the scale of efforts being made by the Centre to bring back the black money stashed abroad, the government and other parties should first consider to find answers for all the illegitimate money received by them for a stable and healthy economy.

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