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Political Donations
Experts are intrigued by the new Income Tax Bill, 2025 retaining provisions related to electoral bonds, which were rendered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court last year, saying it could be because of legislative oversight or the government's intention to bring it back in some other form. Electoral bonds have been mentioned in the new Income Tax Bill's Schedule VIII which deals with 'Income not to be included in the total income of political parties and electoral trusts'. In a judgement passed on February 15 last year, the Supreme Court had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" as it was "violative" of the right to freedom of speech and expression and right to information. Under the existing Income Tax Act, 1961, donations received from companies and individuals through electoral bonds are exempt in the hands of political parties. The government has brought in a new Income Tax Bill to replace the 64-year old I-T
Greenland's parliament passed a bill Tuesday that bans political parties from receiving contributions from foreign or anonymous contributors after President Donald Trump expressed his wish that the United States take over the vast and mineral-rich Arctic island that belongs to Denmark. The bill is aimed at protecting Greenland's political integrity" and will take effect immediately, according to a translation of a parliamentary document in Danish outlining the measure. The bill must be seen in light of the geopolitical interests in Greenland and the current situation where representatives of an allied great power have expressed interest in taking over and controlling Greenland, the document said. Before taking office for his second term on January 20, Trump said he would not rule out the use of military force to seize control of Greenland, calling it vital to US national security. His oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., visited Greenland last month and told citizens: We're going to treat
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday alleged that the BJP alone takes donations for elections and harasses industrialists who want to donate to Congress. Gehlot also accused the BJP-ruled government at the Centre of misusing central agencies like Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax department and the CBI. "BJP alone takes donations in elections and is not letting others take donations. They harass industrialists who want to donate to Congress," the Chief Minister said addressing a public meeting after visiting an inflation relief camp in Dungarpur. Highlighting the schemes and programmes of his government, Gehlot said that none of the state government schemes were launched with elections in mind. He also requested people to vote for the Congress party in the upcoming Assembly elections so that it can retain power in the state. Gehlot also reiterated his demand for a law on right to social security to be passed at the central government level.
Delhi-based Swadeshi Electoral Trust and Jaybharath Electoral Trust registered in Coimbatore have told the Election Commission that they neither received any contribution nor made any donation to a political party in financial year 2021-22. In their annual reports for FY 2021-22 submitted to the poll panel, the two trusts said they received "nil" contributions from all sources permissible under the income tax law. Hence they made "nil" donations to any political party in the fiscal. Electoral trusts have to submit their contribution reports to the EC containing details of contributions received and disbursed by them to political parties in the interest of transparency.