Election Commission plans mandatory disclosure rule if parties get multiple small donations from the same donor.

On Tuesday, the Election Commission declared that from now on all the political parties have to declare details of small donations. Donation which are given from the same donor such that the amount constitutes to be ₹20,000. Political Parties have to disclose details of donations of ₹20,000 or more to the poll watchdog including the donor they received it from. But if the party gets donations for the amount less than ₹20,000 are not subject to the same disclosure rules. Which means details are not to be submitted if the donation for ₹ 50,000 is given as ₹10,000 in five equal parts, as it is less than ₹20,000.

For this, the commission has now sought an amendment to Form 24A. It will help to discourage candidates from contesting from multiple constituencies, and propose a fine for lawmakers who fight for two seats and win both of them. The meeting was held with the officials and Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar and Election Commissioner, Anup Chandra Pandey. And the proposal has been sent to the ministry, henceforth. This is the first public advisory that the department or its policy making body- the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued vis a vis political donations.

Current Ruling Party, BJP has surpassed its opposition parties in collecting donations from business houses and individuals in 2020-2021. Accounting for nearly 75 percent of such funding; according to the mandatory annual contribution reports submitted to the Election Commission. 

Increase in Donations

The party received more than 477 crore as donations of ₹20000 or more in 2020-2021. Which is almost 6.5 times higher than the ₹74 crore generated by the opposition Congress Party. The donations received by Bharatiya Janata Party was lower than its collections in 2019-20 at 785.77 crore. While the party received donations from 2206 contributors, Congress Party received 1059 donors, shown by the reports.

The declared donations are just the tip of an iceberg as far as contributions to political parties are concerned, said by an expert. “Declared donations are nowhere near the total finances of a political party. But at the same time, it is a rough indicator,” said Jagdeep Chhokar. Founder and trustee of the association of Democratic Reforms, which is a non-partisan NGO. Adding the lesser donations may help alleviate some of the problems, but it is not a solution.

The department also requested the public to inform them about such violations or any instance of black money. Through their website for black money – blackmoneyinfo@incometax.gov.etax.gov.in or to the Jurisdictional Principal Commissioner of the department.

Written By: Ishita Sachdeva 

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