Yesterday's Indian Express carried following news
report :
Election
Commission seeks ban on anonymous contributions to parties above Rs 2000
"
Seeking to stem the flow of black money in polls, the Election
Commission has urged the government to amend laws to ban anonymous
contributions of Rs 2000 and above made to political parties. There is no
constitutional or statutory prohibition on receipt of anonymous donations by
political parties. But there is an “indirect partial ban” on anonymous
donations through the requirement of declaration of donations under section 29C
of The Representation of the People Act, 1951.
But,
such declarations are mandated only for contributions above Rs 20,000.
As
per the proposed amendment, sent by the Commission to the government, and made
part of its compendium on proposed electoral reforms, “ anonymous contributions
above or equal to the amount of Rs two thousand should be prohibited. ”
The Commission has also proposed
that exemption of Income Tax should only be extended to political parties that
contest elections and win seats in Lok Sabha or assembly polls.
The
Commission said, “ There could be cases where political parties could be formed
merely for availing of provisions of income tax exemption if the facility, that
are at the expense of the public exchequer, is provided to all political
parties. ”
In yet another recommendation to
check black money, the EC has asked the Law Ministry to ensure that political
parties are made to register details of donors for coupons of all amounts on
the basis of a Supreme Court order of 1996.
Coupons
are one of the ways devised by the political parties for collecting donations
and hence are printed by the party itself. There is no cap or limit as to how
many coupons can be printed or its total quantum. Currently, the details of
donors is not required for coupons with small amounts such as for Rs 10 or 20.
“These smaller sums aggregate into a bigger amount and hence, they need to be
accounted for, to ensure transparency,” the Commission said.
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After reading this , you would not
be surprised that , in India , we have 1,900 + , so called " Political
Parties " , of which ,
possibly less than 20 may be " National " parties
I
wonder how many donations of under Rs 20,000 , did all these parties receive , since
08 Nov announcement on demonetization ! Or , how many MILLIONS of COUPONS got
printed !
My
guess is : RS 2 LAKH*CRORE !
Given the above-mentioned " loopholes " in the " donation
declarations " required of
Political Parties , is it any surprise that these small parties have become the
latest entrants to the flourishing " Hawala " trade ( NEW for OLD notes , at a discount ) , since 08
Nov ?
Do
not overlook the fact that these parties have powerful " friends " in
all bank branches !
But , this recommendation from
Election Commission could not have come at a more opportune time for the NDA
government , what with 5 State Elections looming on the horizon , over the next
12 months
All
that the Government has to do , is as follows :
* Accept EC recommendation ,
making it effective from 01 Feb 2017
* Go one step further and mandate that ALL donations ( even for ONE
rupee ) , to political
parties can only be made either ONLINE (on Party Web site, using Credit /
Debit cards )
or using any other DIGITAL
PAYMENT method
* Those ( smaller / regional )
political parties that wish to " merge
" with any NATIONAL
party,
can do so by transferring their entire corpus of funds / assets to
the NATIONAL
party .
In the hands of the NATIONAL party , this
entire amount will be treated as " Anonymous
Donation " .
This
" exemption " will only apply to parties " merging " before
31 Jan 2017
I
imagine a frenzy of 1800 political parties rushing in to " merge
" with BJP !
Even
as most will not survive , a few will " thrive
"
I
never cease to be amazed at the by-products of demonetization !
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19 Dec
2016
www.hemenparekh.in
/ blogs
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