BRS had highest income, TMC led in spending among regional parties in 2022-’23: Report

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi had the highest income at Rs 737.67 crore among regional parties for the financial year 2022-’23, the non-governmental organisation Association for Democratic Reforms said in a report on Friday.

The party’s income constituted 42.38% of the total combined earnings declared by 39 regional parties whose annual audited accounts were analysed by the organisation.

Records of 18 out of 57 regional parties were not available on the Election Commission’s website at the time that the report was prepared.

With an income of Rs 333.45 crore, the Trinamool Congressstood had the second-highest earnings in the financial year 2022-’23 and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam came in third with an income of Rs 214.35 crore.

The top five parties with the highest incomes, which also included the Biju Janata Dal and the YSR Congress, collectively held Rs 1,541.32 crore, or 88.56% of the total income of all the regional parties analysed by the organisation.

According to the Association for Democratic Reforms, the parties that did not submit their audited accounts included Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, the Jammu and Kashmir National Conference, the Nationalist Congress Party and the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray).

The organisation urged the Election Commission to enforce stricter deadlines for audit reports and penalise parties for late or non-submission.

It also called for the rigorous enforcement of Section 13A of the Income Tax Act and Section 29 (C) of the Representation of People Act that pertains to financial disclosures made by parties.

Highest expenditures

The Trinamool Congress reported the highest expenditure at Rs 181.18 crore, or 37.66% of the total spending by parties for 2022-’23, the report said.

This was followed by the YSR Congress at Rs 79.32 crore, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi at Rs 57.47 crore, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam at Rs 52.62 crore and the Samajwadi Party at Rs 31.41 crore.

The Association for Democratic Reforms also noted that the Bharat Rashtra Samithi reported the highest unspent income at Rs 680.20 crore.

The Biju Janata Dal followed at Rs 171.06 crore and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam came in third at Rs 161.72 crore.

On the other hand, the report said that 20 parties spent more than their income. The Janta Dal (Secular) topped the list after having declared that its expenditure exceeded 490.43% of its income.

According to the organisation, voluntary contributions were the primary source of income for the parties. This included donations and electoral bonds.

Income amounting to Rs 1,522.46 crore, or 87.47% of the total income, came in from such contributions, it said, adding that Rs 1,285.83 crore out of this were received through electoral bonds.

Eight regional parties declared that they received donations through electoral bonds.

On February 15, the electoral bonds scheme was struck down by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on the grounds that it violated voters’ right to information and could lead to quid pro quo arrangements between donors and political parties.

Electoral bonds were monetary instruments that citizens or corporate groups could buy from the State Bank of India and give to a political party, which then redeemed them.

Under the scheme, buyers were not required to declare their purchase of these interest-free bonds and political parties did not need to show the source of the money. Only the total amount received through the electoral bonds was revealed to the Election Commission through the audited accounts statements.

However, the Centre could access information about these donors as it controls the State Bank of India.

The court had on February 15 directed the State Bank of India to issue details of the political parties that received electoral bonds from April 12, 2019, and submit them to the Election Commission. In the initial set of data released on court orders, the State Bank of India had not revealed the unique alphanumeric numbers and serial numbers of the electoral bonds.

It was only after petitioners in the case approached the court that the bank shared the alphanumeric and serial numbers of electoral bonds that were used to match donations with the parties that received them.