EC issues guidelines for donations by electoral trusts

Seeking to check the use of black money in the electoral process, the Election Commission (EC) today issued guidelines for reporting of contributions by electoral trusts, set up for making donations to political parties.
The EC issued a set of five guidelines in this regard, saying there was a "legal vaccum" in respect of disclosure of contribution reports by the electoral trusts to it and the Income Tax department.
The poll panel said it was exercising its powers under the Constitution to notify these rules and "adverse notice shall be taken in case of failure to comply with these instructions".

The EC also notified a list of seven approved electoral trusts, majority of which are based in the national capital.
The new guidelines state that all the electoral trusts are required to "submit an annual report of contributions to the Commission before the due date of filing of Income Tax returns".
The reports will have to contain details of contributions received from any person, company or entity in a financial year with the name and address of the donors and details of all donations given to political parties in a financial year.

These annual reports, the EC said, should also be "verified and signed" by the person authorised on behalf of the electoral trust.

The trusts will also have to sumbit the annual audit reports of the respective electoral trusts, the EC said.
The trusts, in these records, will have to furnish the name of individual donors and entities along with their Permanent Account Number (PAN), the serial number of the cheque, demand draft, RTGS or NEFT from which the donation is made and the name of the bank branch from where it was generated.