No state funding for elections, says Election Commission
80 per cent of 'loosely governed' funds escape scrutiny, says EC.
New Delhi: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi said on Tuesday that funding of political parties in the country is “loosely governed” under the law and almost 80 per cent of their total funds escape “scrutiny” owing to lack of required laws in this regard.
Mr Zaidi, while addressing a global conference on the influence of money power in the electoral process, said it was high time that electoral reforms, which entail enactment of better laws to regulate money usage used in polls by parties and candidates, are ushered in.
“Political parties, as loosely governed under the law, they can raise any amount of resources barring contribution from government company and foreign donations and they can spend any amount of money during election campaign in a constituency if it is related to general party propaganda,” he said.
The CEC said the limits for donations to be made by corporates to political parties has increased over the period of time and hence, “this has increased the scope of receiving and spending more money at constituency level (by parties).”
“The only legal requirement for political parties is to make annual contribution report to the EC,” he said, adding contributions of below Rs 20,000 are “escaping scrutiny of the EC and the public,” the commissioner said.
“We send these reports to the ministry of corporate affairs, ministry of home affairs and the income tax department for appropriate action at their end...Data with us suggests that out of the total funds available with political parties, contribution amount of less than Rs 20,000 constitutes 80 per cent of total funds,” he said.
Many candidates ‘under-reporting’
The majority of candidates contesting polls in India are “under-reporting” their expenses and inadequate laws to regulate political funds may lead to a “fearful” situation where institutions go under the “control of money” and holding fair polls becomes difficult, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidi said on Tuesday.
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