Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Ruling party files election expenditure reports of its central headquarters

The political Parties were required to file their Election Expenditure reports by September 4,
2024. Notably, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) filed its election expenditure report for Lok Sabha elections on January 22, 2025.
BJP’s (Central HQ) opening balance on the date of announcement of polls was Rs 3,766 crore. The funds received by BJP (Central HQ) during Lok Sabha elections was Rs 5,552 crore. BJP’s (Central HQ) expenditure during Lok Sabha elections was Rs 1,957 crore. BJP’s (Central HQ) balance on the date of completion of polls as on June 2024 was Rs 7,361 crore. Significantly, BJP (Central HQ) spent 25 crore in Facebook during March 16, 2024 -June 6, 2024. These do not include the account of BJP’s State Units’ expenditures. It is hoped the a cumulative expenditure of State Units’ expenditures and BJP (Central HQ) will come to light soon.

The political parties directly collect funds and incur expenditure during elections. They collect funds exclusively for election campaigns and spend the same on publicity, advertisement, travel and on candidates for their individual campaigns.

All the political parties contesting in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections (recognised national and regional parties and unrecognised regional parties) are required to maintain the total funds collected during the election period (from th date of announcements of elections to the date of completion of elections) in cash, cheque and in kind. They are also required to maintain the total expenditure incurred in cash and cheque during the same election period apart from the various heads under which the funds were spent. These heads include publicity, travel, on candidates and other expenses.

The contesting political parties are required to file their expenditure statements to the Election Commission of India (ECI) in the format specified by the Commission within 75 days of Assembly elections and 90 days of Lok Sabha elections.  ECI akes these statements available in the public domain via below link on its website for scrutiny of public. The website is:

http://eci.nic.in/eci_main1/PolPar/expenditurereports.aspx

But there are no provisions laid down in the Representation of the People’s Act, 1951 (RPA) regarding the format and periodicity of submission of expenditure statements nor clause for penalty in case of defaulting parties.

The Supreme Court in its judgement dated 4th April, ’96 (Common Cause vs. Union of India) had observed the lack of transparency in the election expenditure incurred by parties and directed the Election Commission to create a format for the recognised parties to submit their statements. The judgement can be referred from the link below:

http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgs1.aspx?filename=15749

For the first time, the ECI suspended the recognition of a political party (National People’s Party) for failing to submit its Lok Sabha expenditure statement incurred in 2014 which prompted the party to duly file its statement.

Unlike the limit of election expenditure imposed on a contesting candidate by the Union of India through the ECI, there is no limit on the expenditure that a party can incur during its election campaigns.

The Indian judiciary had observed in a number of judgements that the current legal provisions were not sufficient to hold political parties accountable for the money collected from various sources as the donor details are unavailable in the public domain as did other Committee reports. The Apex court had also voiced its concern over the fact that elections were now being contested on the might of monies which might have been obtained from illegal sources. 

ADR has filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Delhi High Court requesting the court to issue such directions that the recommendations of the 170th Law Commission’s report be implemented. The 170th Report suggested monitoring and regulation of expenditure by political parties.

Apart from requesting the High Court to issue directions on implementation of the recommendations of the 170th Law Commission report, ADR has included the following 3 major prayers in its petition:
• introduction of a ceiling on election expenditure incurred by political parties, on and during elections;
• direction to political parties to submit election expenditure statements one year prior to the date of
announcements of elections (Lok Sabha Assembly elections);
• increase the frequency of submission of expenditure statements during the election period: once a month before declaration of elections and at least once a week during the election period.
Details of the complete PIL can be accessed from: http://goo.gl/5MQQb4

The ECI's expenditure monitoring system is an important part of ensuring that elections in India are free and fair. By monitoring election expenditure, the ECI helps to prevent candidates and political parties from using their wealth to influence the outcome of elections.

During the conduct of elections, it is one of the major aspects to keep a record of the expenses of the candidate over the election. All the candidates have to keep a record of their expenses and once the election is over then all the candidate has to submit the expenses report to the DEO after 30 days from the date of declaration of result.

The expenditure monitoring system is also one of the modules of the ENCORE where the DEOs have to fill the DEO scrutiny report for all the candidates of his district. The candidate keeps the regular records during the campaign period to properly and correctly account every election expenditure incurred by the candidates and political parties during this period. The Online application of Expenditure provides for capturing of expenses by candidate over public meetings, posters, banners, vehicle, and ceiling for candidate expenditure. The candidate also keeps the record of the funds that he receives from the parties for his expenses. Once the election is over he needs to submit the complete details to the DEO for the ACs he has contested.

Key benefits of the ECI's expenditure monitoring system: It keeps the accounts of all the inflow and outflow of the funds that he has used in the election. The system also shows the understated accounts on the dashboard. Separate login for the zonal division in ECI to receive and close the report. Verification of the accounts at CEO level before submission to ECI.
Provision to save the partially filled report in draft and candidate wise data entry on the portal.

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