Story in numbers: Lack of transparency among parties

On November 19, 2014, the Election Commission of India (EC) had asked, in the interest of greater accountability and transparency, the presidents and general secretaries of all political parties to mandatorily submit details of their audited reports to the EC.
 
The national parties comprise Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India Marxist or CPI(M), and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC). The AITC was recognised as a national party by the EC because of its presence and recognition as a state party in the states of West Bengal, Tripura, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

 
The deadline for submission of annual audited accounts was October 31, 2016. AITC, BSP and CPI(M) were the only parties to submit returns on time. The others submitted with varying delays. As of  May 1, 2017, the BJP and INC had yet to submit their accounts. This makes it tough to compare expenditure and income of the two major national parties from their reported income and expenditure in 2014-15. The BJP reported the highest income in 2014-15 but in the absence of accounts submitted by it in 2015-16, it is tough to compare where the party stands today. The BJP was followed by the INC, which is yet to submit its returns for 2015-16.
 
Democracy watchdog Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) has suggested that not only should there be strict monitoring of the income and expenditure of all parties, but also, they should submit to the overall regime of the Right to Information. Details of donors and  expenditure heads should be publicly available. If a party does not submit its returns by the due date, its income should not be tax exempt and defaulting parties should be derecognised.
 

Data: ADR
 
Text: ADR  and Aditi Phadnis