The income of the BJP increased by 81.18 per cent to Rs 1,034.27 crore while that of the Congress decreased by 14 per cent to Rs 225.36 crore between 2015-16 and 2016-17, a report released on Tuesday said.
According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report, seven national parties — the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Trinamool Congress — have declared a total income of Rs 1,559.17 crore and expenditures of Rs 1,228.26 crore.
The report, based on the submissions made to the Election Commission, compared the total income of the BJP and Congress, their expenditure and sources of income. The BJP had declared expenditures of Rs 710.057 crore during 2016-17 while Congress incurred Rs 321.66 crore-Rs 96.30 crores more than its total income.
The report said that both the parties have declared “donations/ contributions” as one of their three main sources of income.
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“The grant/ donations/ contributions of Rs 997.12 crore declared by the BJP forms 96.41 percent of the total income of the party during 2016-17. Declaration of Rs 115.644 crore in revenue from the issuance of coupons by the Congress forms topmost income of the party, contributing 51.32 percent of its total income during the fiscal,” it added.
The report said that the seven national parties collected a maximum of 74.98 per cent (Rs 1,169.07 crore) income from voluntary contributions for 2016-17. The ADR said the BJP, Congress, NCP, and CPI have consistently delayed submitting their audit reports for the past five years.
The ADR said that a political party which does not submit its Income Tax returns on or before the due date should be given tax exemption and should be de-recognized.
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