The Congress received donations worth over `66 crore and NCP garnered about `14 crore from individuals and business entities in fund contributions of over `20,000 in the last financial year while BJP was among the parties which did not disclose such details to the Election Commission till the November 30 deadline.
A number of political parties recently submitted their annual reports of contributions of over `20,000 received by them, as stipulated under Section 29C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 which enables recognised political parties to get tax exemptions on this income, to the Election Commission which gives them to Income Tax department.
BJP, TRS, JD(U), JD(S), BJD, YSRCP, INlD, lJP, National Conference and PDP did not furnish the information though the last date was November 30. It was not immediately clear if the parties which failed to submit their records to the EC by the last date have obtained relief from the I-T department for non-compliance of the set deadline.
While Congress reported that it received a total of `66,47,22,228 as part of contributions made over `20,000 for the 2013-14 financial year, the Trinamool Congress said it has received about `1.40 crore, AIADMK `1.03 crore and DMK slightly over `1.04 crore.
Almost all the Congress MPs and Ministers of the last lok Sabha composition have contributed to the party in various amounts, according to the submitted records.
Amongst the other parties who filed their latest contribution reports include the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), CPI and CPI (Marxist), Shiv Sena and TDP. However, the gross total donations of these parties were not immediately available.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was the only major political party which said it had received “nil” amount under this category. Experts said the BSP’s statement is in line with the party’s stated claim that it only gets funds from people with small earnings.