Over 55% of the donations received by regional parties in FY 2019-20 came from “unknown” sources, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report Thursday. According to the report, electoral bonds accounted for nearly 95% of the donations from “unknown” sources.
In its report for 2018-19 fiscal, ADR found the total income of 23 regional parties amounted to ₹885.956 crores including ₹481.276 crores, or 54.32% from unknown sources. There has been a 1.18% increase in income from unknown sources.
Among the regional parties, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) declared the highest income from unknown sources at Rs. 89.158 crore.
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Other parties with significant contributions were Telugu Desam Party (Rs. 81.694 crore), YSR Congress Party (Rs. 74.75 crore), Biju Janata Dal (Rs. 50.586 crore), and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Rs. 45.50 crore).
In its instruction to all political parties in the report, the ADR asked parties to make the full details of the donors available while suggesting that any organization that receives foreign funding will not be allowed to support or campaign for any party or candidate.
“The mode of payment of all donations (above and below Rs 20,000), income from the sale of coupons, membership fees, etc. should be declared by the parties in audit reports, submitted to the I-T department and ECI,” the ADR had said.
(With inputs from agencies)
