New Delhi: The Samajwadi Party is the richest regional party, followed by the DMK and TRS, a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has said.
The report analysed the income and expenditure of 37 regional political parties for the financial year 2017-18. According to the ADR analysis, the total income of these parties for 2017-18 was Rs 237.27crore.
The analysis shows that Akhilesh Yadav’s party has the highest income of Rs 47.19 crore, which forms 19.89 percent of the total income of all 37 parties, while the DMK and the TRS have declared a total income of Rs 35.748 crore and Rs 27.27 crore, respectively. The three parties amounted to Rs 110.21 crore (46.45%) of the total share of regional parties.
The ADR analysis also revealed that the total income of remaining 34 regional parties decreased from Rs 409.64 crore in FY 2016-17 to Rs 236.86 crore in FY 2017-18, a drop of 42%. On the other hand, the expenses of these 34 parties for FY 2016-17 was Rs 468.63 crore, This is a decrease of 63.72% (from Rs 298.61 cr to Rs 170.02 cr) in FY 2017-18.
The report covers 37 out of the total 48 regional parties as the audit reports of the remaining 11 parties were unavailable on the website of the Election Commission of India, according to the ADR. These 11 parties include National Conference, Peoples Democratic Party and the Bodoland People's Front.
Interestingly, out of 48, only 20 regional parties had submitted their audit reports by due date which was October 30, 2018. Rest 17 delayed their submission, by several days, ranging from a day to 110 days.
Sources of Income
The common sources of income for the parties were grant/donations/contributions, membership fees & subscriptions, and interest income.
All 37 regional parties collected Rs 77.30 crore (32.58%) of their total income from voluntary contributions (includes donations & contributions and electoral bonds). Only JD(S) declared receiving an income of Rs 6.03 crore contribution through electoral bonds. Rs 86.6 crore (36.50%) was generated through membership fee by these parties.
The TRS received the highest amount worth Rs 22.909 crore from ‘fees and subscriptions’, which forms 84.01% of its total income. Only Akali Dal and JVM-P declared receiving a total income of Rs 1.768 crore from Sale of Coupons.
Comparison of Income
Fifteen out of 37 regional parties have shown a decline in their income from FY 2016-17 to FY 2017-18 while 19 parties showed an increase. Three parties, including AJSU (All Jharkhand Students Union), AIFB (All India Forward Bloc) and JKNPP (Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party), have not submitted their Income Tax Returns to the poll panel in FY 2016-17 yet.
Two regional parties — SP and TDP — reported the highest income among other parties for both years. On the other hand, DMK, TRS and the YSR Congress have seen the maximum income increase of Rs 31.97 crore, Rs 23.48 crore and Rs 13.30 crore, respectively.
Expenditure of Parties
The total expenditure of all 37 regional parties for the FY 2017-18 was Rs 170.45 crore. Among them, the top three regional parties — SP, DMK and TRS — incurred the highest expenditure in which SP had spent Rs 34.539 crore, followed by the DMK which spent Rs 27.47 crore and the TDP with Rs 16.73 crore.
During FY 2017-18, five regional parties with excess of income over expenditure include SP, DMK, TRS, Biju Janata Dal and JD-U. The TRS has the highest ‘excess of income over expenditure’ of Rs 15.19 crore, followed by SP with Rs 12.65 crore and JD-U with Rs 10.32 crore.
The most common types of expenditure on which parties have spent more money are election expenses, administrative and general expenses.
Unspent Income
Twenty-two regional parties have declared a part of their income as remaining unspent for FY 2017-18. JD(S) and JD(U) have more than 85% of their total income remaining unspent while AIMIM has 63% of its income remaining unspent.
YSR Congress has declared spending Rs 2.41 crore more than its income while IUML declared Rs 2.06 crore.
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