Only Half the State parties submitted their audit & contribution reports till date
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
November 26, 2019
Of the 50 odd recognized state parties, only 22 have submitted annual audit reports as on date for the year 2018-19. BJD, YSRCP, TRS & JD(S) reported a significant increase in their income in 2018-19, mainly through electoral bonds.
Inan earlier
story, we looked at the status of submission of ‘AnnualAudit Reports’ by recognized national parties and have analysed the reportsthat were submitted so far for 2018-19.  Asis the case with recognized national parties, even the recognized state partiesare required to submit their Annual
Audit reports along with Contributions Report and Expenditurereports.
Only
22 recognized state parties have submitted the Annual Audit Reports.
Asper Election Commission of India (ECI), there are currently 53 recognized stateparties. Out of these only 22
parties have submitted their Annual Audit report asof 25 November 2019. Among these 22 political parties, 11 parties havesubmitted the audit reports prior to the cut-off date of i.e. 31 October.
TheseParties include: AIADMK,AJSU, INLD, JD(U), JMM, JVM(P), MNS, PDA, RLD,SAD & SDF
Theother 11 recognized state parties which have submitted their annual auditreport for 2018-19, but not prior to 31 October cut-off are : AAP, BJD, DMDK, JD(S), SP, PMK, TRS & YSRC, MGP, NPF & NDPP.
26
recognised State political parties have submitted the Contribution reports
while 27 parties have submitted Expenditure reports.
Apartfrom the annual audit reports, the recognised state political parties are alsorequired to submit contribution report which provides the details of thecontributions received and also expenditure report which details theexpenditure by the political parties during general elections.
Thecut-off date to submit the contribution reports is 30th September for recognized state parties as well. However, as ondate only 26 state parties have submitted
the contribution reports. Of these, only 6 politicalparties have submitted prior to the cut-off date. These include : AIADMK, AIUDF, INLD, MNS, SAD,& TDP.
Furthermore,political parties are required to submit Expenditure report with 75 days ofcompletion of assembly general elections and 90 days
after completion of Lok Sabha general elections. While only 27 of the53 recognized state parties have submitted their expenditure
reports, only 8 political parties have submitted the reports bythe cut-off date.
Ofall the recognised State parties , only All India Anna Dravida MunnetraKazhagam (AIADMK) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), have submitted all the threereports within the cut-off dates.
Significant
increase in the income of TRS and YSRCP in 2018-19, the election year
Ofthe 22 recognised state political parties which have submitted their Auditreports, 6 political parties belong to the southern states of India.  Of these AIADMK, DMDK & PMK belong toTamil Nadu while JD(S) has major presence in Karnataka.  TRS and YSRCP belong to the two Teluguspeaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh respectively.
Asper the annual audit reports submitted by these political parties, we can seethat income of TRS and YSRCP had a significant increase in 2018-19 compared to2017-18. This could be because both the Assembly & Lok Sabha general electionswere held in these two states during this year. The assembly general elections inTelangana took place towards the end of 2018 while in Andhra Pradesh, they wereheld in April 2019.
Allthese 6 political parties reported an increase in their income. As we stated inthe previous story about the national parties, this could be due to the generalelections.
In2017-18, the income of  TRS was ₹ 27.3 crores which increased by nearly 7 times to ₹ 188.7 crores in 2018-19.  Similarly, the revenue of YSRCP for the year2017-18 was ₹14.2 crores, which has increased significantly in 2018-19 to ₹ 181.1 crores.
JD(S)which contested the Karnataka assembly general elections in April 2018 showed arevenue of ₹38 crores in 2018-19, while it was ₹ 15.4 crores the previous year. AIADMK also doubled upits revenue to ₹28.1 crores in 2018-19 from ₹12.7 crores in 2017-18.
Electoral
Bonds are the major income source in 2018-19 for TRS, YSRCP & JD(S)
TRSreceived ₹182.7 crores i.e. nearly 97% of its income is 2018-19 from ‘Voluntary Donationsand Contributions’. As per the contribution
report submitted by TRS, ₹ 24.8 crores were received through contributions ofover ₹20,000. Another ₹16.5 crores were received through ‘Electoral Trusts’. However, a significantportion of donations/contributions received by TRS is through electoral bondswhich amounted to ₹141.5 crores in 2018-19.
Asper the
contribution report submitted by YSRCP, approximately ₹ 53.5 crores were received through donations amountingto more than ₹20,000 and ₹27 crores were received from a single electoral trust i.e. Prudent ElectoralTrust. Audit Report of YSRCP shows that ₹ 99.8 crores were received through electoral bonds in2018-19.
EvenJD(S) has received ₹35.3 crores of its ₹38 crores income in 2018-19 through electoral bonds.
MeanwhileAIADMK, reported ₹12.2 crores as interest income along with ₹ 10.2 crores received via ‘Fee & Subscriptions’and another ₹5.7 crores are received through ‘Collection from issuance of forms &application fees’. Not a single rupee is through donations or contributions.
BJD
also reported a huge increase in its income in 2018-19, mainly through
Electoral Bonds
Mostof the other recognized state political parties have reported an increase inthe revenue for year 2018-19 over the previous year. Biju Janata Dal (BJD) alsoreported a significant increase in its revenue for 2018-19. In 2017-18 theincome of BJD was reported as ₹14.1 crores, but in 2018-19, it has increased to ₹ 249.3 crores i.e. an increase by more than 17 times. Likein the case of Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, Odisha also had both assembly& Lok Sabha general elections during 2018-19. This could be the reason forsuch an increase in income.
Theannual audit report states that ₹ 242.9 crores i.e. nearly 97% of the revenue wasgenerated through ‘Grants/Donations/Contributions’. A significant portion ofthis amounting up to ₹213.5 crores are received through Electoral Bonds. ₹ 25 crores are received from AB General ElectoralTrust.
Amongthe other larger recognized State Parties, AAP has nearly doubled its income with₹ 19.3 croresin 2018-19 of which ₹19.2 crores are through ‘Donations and Contributions.’ Janata Dal(United) whichreported an income of ₹23.6 crores have received ₹13.18 crores from donations above ₹20,000 as per their contribution
report, of which ₹ 13 crores are from a single source through multipledonations.
Surprisingly,Samajwadi party has seen a dip in the income compared to 2017-18. It reportedan income of ₹47.2 crores in 2017-18, while it is only ₹ 33.8 crores for 2018-19. The difference can be mainlyattributed to the fall in income under ‘Fees & Subscription’, through whichit earned ₹19.6 crores in 2017-18 while it is only  ₹ 51.5 lakhs in 2018-19.
Non-submission
of financial reports an issue even with the recognized State parties
Asis the case with National
Parties, even the recognised state parties are not complyingwith the cut-off dates as far as the submission of Annual Audit Reports, ContributionReports and Expenditure reports are concerned. As we have seen, the number ofparties who have submitted so far is less than half the total number and thenumber for the parties who submitted on time is much lower than that.
Suchdelay in the submission of reports severely handicaps any analysis andobservations that can be made in respect to financial transparency.  A case in point is the Telugu Desamparty  (TDP) in the Telegu speakingstates. Both the TRS & YSRCP, the major parties in Telangana & AndhraPradesh reported a significant increase in their income, majority of it throughelectoral bonds. Though TDP is also a major party in these states, they are yetto submit the annual audit report which impedes any holistic understanding ofthe situation.
Asindicated in the earlier
story,  strict lawswhich could lead to imposition of fines for non-compliance along with thechange in rules that would require the political parties to disclose all thedonations received including  throughelectoral bonds, seem like the only way out for better transparency inpolitical funding.