The total income of 32 regional parties in 2015-16 was ₹221.48 crore of which ₹110 crore remained unspent, with DMK having the highest income, says a report.
“The total income of 32 regional parties for 2015-16 was ₹221.48 crore, of which the parties spent ₹111.48 crore and declared an unspent amount of ₹110 crore (49.67% unspent of total income),” a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said today.
There are 47 regional parties out of which 15 have not submitted their audit report for 2015-16 to the Election Commission of India, till date, including the Samajwadi Party(SP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Delhi-based think tank said.
The due date for submission of the annual audited accounts for the parties was October 31, 2016. “During 2015-16, the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) had the highest income of ₹77.63 crore among all regional parties, followed by the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) at ₹54.93 crore and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) at ₹15.97 crore,” ADR said.
The top three regional parties that incurred the highest expenditure were the Janata Dal (United), which spent ₹23.46 crore, followed by the TDP at ₹13.10 crore and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at ₹11.09 crore, it added.
The report further said that 14 out of the 32 regional parties have reported incurring expenditure more than their total income. Three parties, the JVM—P (Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik), the JDU, and the RLD have spent close to 200% of their total income in 2015-16.
The DMK, AIADMK and AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) have more than 80% of their income remaining unspent, it said.
ADR said that in 2015-16, the total income of the DMK (₹77.63 crore) forms 35.05% of the total income of all 32 regional parties considered for the report.
“The top three parties which declared highest income are DMK, AIADMK and TDP, amounting to a total of ₹148.54 crore. This comprises more than 67% of the total income of 32 regional parties, collectively,” it added.
Total income (from known and unknown sources) of 18 regional parties during 2015-16 was ₹206.21 crore. Details of IT returns as well as donation statements were available only for 18 regional parties..
The total income of parties from known donors was ₹90.74 crore. Also, the total income of parties from other known sources (sale of assets, membership fees, among others) was ₹74.86 crore.
Besides, the total income of parties from unknown sources (income specified in IT Returns whose sources are unknown), for 2015-16 was ₹40.61 crore, which is 20% of the total income of the parties from all over India.
Out of the 18 parties, the JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha) is the only regional party not to declare any income under unknown sources during 2015-16.
Among unknown sources of funding, maximum funds were collected under “voluntary contributions” by seventeen regional parties in 2015-16. A total of ₹28.94 crore was collected under “voluntary contributions”, forming 71.28% of the total income from unknown sources.
The second most preferred unknown source of funding was “gross receipts” under which the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) collected ₹6.59 crore which formed 16.23% of their total income from unknown sources during 2015-16.
Six regional parties have more than one unknown source of income while eleven have only one unknown source. Parties with highest unknown sources of income are TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samithi) at ₹7.24 crore, the TDP at ₹6.88 crore, and the SAD at ₹6.59 crore.
Donations/contributions, interest income, and fees and subscriptions are the top three sources of income of regional parties.
The most common types of expenditure, on which parties incurred highest amount are election expenses, administrative and general expenses.
Among the top five parties, which have reported spending the highest overall amount, the JDU spent the maximum, ₹14.03 crore on elections, followed by TDP which spent the highest, ₹8.93 crore on administrative and general expenses. AAP spent ₹5.116 crore, the highest on propaganda expenses.
