EC can do no more

 

Beyond delisting political parties

Context :

EC delists 87 Registered Unrecognized Parties, seeks action against 2174 more

( Eco Times / 26 May 2022 )

Extact :

The election commission has delisted 87 registered unrecognised political parties and sought action against 2,174 more for failing to submit their list of donors. It has also put under scrutiny donations totalling over ₹1,000 crore made to such parties.

EC has initiated action against several registered unrecognised political parties under Sections 29A and 29C of the Representation of People Act, 1951, for claiming tax exemptions without fulfilling mandatory requirements. EC has alleged three of the parties committed financial fraud.

As per Central Board of Direct Taxes, 199 parties claimed ₹445 crore tax exemptions in 2018-19, and 219 in 2019-20 claimed ₹608 crore exemptions. Sixty-six registered unrecognised parties which claimed total tax exemption of ₹385 crore in 2019-20 did not submit mandatory contribution reports and claimed exemptions without complying with statutory requirements. A few claimed tax exemptions of ₹100 crore to ₹150 crore each, the election commission said in a news release in New Delhi on Wednesday.

"The Commission has evidence of serious financial impropriety, wilful attempts for tax evasion and other illegal financial activities against three specific registered unrecognised political parties amounting to fraudulent use of privileges and public trust available to them," EC alleged, referring back the matter to the central government's revenue department which flagged the cases.

MY  TAKE :

The root-cause of this evil is our existing system of funding of political parties

Introduction of ELECTORAL BONDS, a few years ago, has failed to eliminate the use of BLACK MONEY in political arena

Despite many attempts by EC ( and even Supreme Court ), political parties do NOT want to bring a change in the current system, which :

Ø  Eliminates use of Black Money

Ø  Brings about total TRANSPARENCY in the whole process

Is there any organization which has the courage to support my following suggestion ( even modi-fied ? ) :

Ø  Transparency in Political Funding ? …………………………[ 06 July 2017 ]

 

With regards,

Hemen Parekh  /  hcp@RecruitGuru.com / 26 May 2022

 

 

Related Readings :

Ø  Make Me A Party…………………………….. [ 03 Oct 2017 ]

Ø  Electoral Bonds for Transparency ?.. [ 03 Jan 2018 ]

Ø  Don’t Disclose Donations …………………[ 04 Jan 2018 ]

Ø  Of Electoral Bondage ?................... [ 30 Mar 2019 ]

Ø  Please Hear and Read too……………….. [ 19 Mar 2021 ]

Ø  Thank You for “ Reading “/“ Asking “ [ 24 Mar 2021 ]

 

Ø  But what is info in “sealed cover“?.....[ 05 July 2021 ]

 

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Added  on 02 June 2022 :

Election panel renews proposal for power to deregister parties

(  ET  /  02 June 2022 )

 Extract :

At a meeting with the law ministry on Tuesday - the Election Commission under its new chief Rajiv Kumar - is learnt to have renewed its proposal for powers to derecognise/deregister political parties. It also emphasised on the necessity to have political parties declare funding of amounts smaller than ₹20,000 as well.

The EC has sought that it be empowered to regulate both registration and deregistration of political parties. The current rulebook allows EC to register parties but does not allow for deregistration.

The poll panel is learnt to have sought modification in Form 24A so that contributions of amounts even smaller than ₹20,000 are mentioned. Currently, parties do not have to disclose donors with less than ₹20,000 contribution. The EC has been suggesting that tax relief should only be for parties that contest elections over a period of time, failing which deregistration should be permitted.