The Election Commission has proposed to the Law Ministry to raise the expenditure limits for Lok Sabha elections to a maximum of Rs 70 lakh and bring the North-Eastern and hill states on par with those in the plains and proposed the limit of Rs 54 lakh for them.
The Commission has also proposed to raise expenditure limits for assembly elections, with a maximum of Rs 28 lakh and a amimum of Rs 20 lakh in NE and hill states.
This was stated by Law Minister Kapil Sibal in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on whether EC has proposed any raise in expenditure limits.
"A proposal of the Election Commission to raise the expenditure limit for Lok Sabha and assembly elections has been received on February 17, 2014," he said.
On the action on the EC proposal, Sibal said "the matter is being examined and a decision to this effect will be taken in due course in accordance with laid-down procedure."
As per EC's proposal to Law Ministry, the expenditure rates will go up from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 70 lakh for each Lok Sabha constituency in bigger states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka, while it will go up from the present Rs 22 lakh in Goa to Rs 54 lakh on par with other hilly and north eastern states.
It will also go up to Rs 54 lakh in north eastern states where the limits were varying between Rs 35 lakh to Rs 27 lakh for parliamentary seats.
Among the union territories, the limit will go up from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 70 lakh in Delhi while it will be uniform at Rs 54 lakh for all other UTs.
The limit for Delhi assembly elections is proposed to be raised to Rs 28 lakh from Rs 14 lakh at present and Rs 20 lakh for Puducherry from Rs 8 lakh now.
