In Depth - Political Funding

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] hello and welcome to in-depth i am tinaja across the world political parties need access to money in order to reach out to the electorate explain their policies and receive inputs from people and in order to raise their wealth parties resort to political party funding one of the primary sources of this funding is the voluntary contributions made by individuals besides this corporates pay hefty donations to parties in different forms and foreign aid is another source in financial year 2017-18 the ruling bjp got an income of over 1 000 crore rupees it spent 750 crore rupees during the period the figures were made available by election watchdog association of democratic reforms today in in-depth we study the total income and expenditure of national parties for the financial year 2017-18 we also look at the electoral reforms in recent years recommendations to make political funding more transparent and how parties across the world generate funds well the association of democratic reforms analyzed the income and expenditure of national political parties based on their i.t returns submitted to the election commission of india it's it started details of six parties the bjp bsp ncp cpi cpim and the tmc the association of democratic reforms analyzed the total income and expenditure of six of india's seven national parties during 2017-18 as declared by the parties in their i.t returns submitted to the election commission of india as for the report the bjp has declared a total income of 1027.34 crore rupees during 2017-18 and spent 74 of it amounting to 758.47 crore rupees the ruling party's income came down by nearly seven crore rupees as compared to 1034.27 crore rupees total income it had declared in 2016-17 the communist party of india marxist follows in the second phase with an income of 104.85 pro rupees and an expenditure of 83.48 crore rupees party declared a total income of 51.7 crore rupees during the year 2017-18 or which the party spent only 29 percent that is 14.78 crore rupees sharad pawan ncp was the only party to have spent more than its total income of 8.15 crore rupees the party spent eight point eight four crore rupees threadamol congress declared a total income of 5.167 crore rupees and spent 1.76 crore rupees while the communist party of india's total income was 1.55 crore rupees during 2017-18 it spent 1.10 crore rupees income and expenditure of the congress party is not known as the party is yet to submit its audited reports to the election commission in 2016-17 the main opposition party had earned 225.36 properties the six parties which include the bjp bsp ncp cpi cpim and the tmc collected 1041.80 crore rupees of their total income from voluntary contributions during the financial year 2017-18 national parties are required to submit a copy of their audited reports to the election commission uh before the due date for filing it with the id department so what we have done is we have analyzed the income the expenditure of the six national parties whose details are available in the public domain so out of the seven parties uh congress has not yet submitted its uh report with the election commission of india yet and uh the remaining six parties though they have submitted not everybody has submitted before the due date for filing which was 30th october 2018. of the six national parties mentioned in the adr report only bjp declared receiving an income of 210 crore rupees from contribution through electoral bonds the electoral bonds can be encashed by an eligible political party only through a bank account only the political parties registered under section 29a of the representation of the people act 1951 and which secured not less than one percent of the votes board in the last general election to the house of people or the legislative assembly of the state are eligible to receive electoral bonds did analyze the 2000 the income and expenditure report of the national parties for financial year 1617 with that of the current report of 1718. so we see that almost all the party's income has um reduced most of it except for bsp sourcing cream um whose income increased from 51 crores to 173 crores so um sorry bsp is decreased by about 235 percent mythologies and uh bgp yeah so bjp's income decreased by about 7.67 percent so by about seven crores so last year they had declared an income of 1034 crores whereas this year they were declared income of thousand twenty seven crores so majority of all the parties income you see has decreased compared to previous year's income besides the bjp alone received 167 crore rupees or 86.59 of the total donations received by all political parties in 2017-18 from electoral trusts which are non-profit companies formed for political funding while four other parties the congress biju janatadal ncp and jammu and kashmir national conference received 25.98 crore rupees collectively in the same period from electoral trusts currently there are 22 registered electoral trusts formed by various industrial houses and companies according to the election commission guidelines all electoral trusts formed after january 2013 are required to declare details of the money they receive and how it is dispersed the central government rules mandate these firms to donate 95 of their total income to registered political parties in a financial year with inputs from another bureau the government has taken several steps to make political funding transparent electoral bonds is one of them to cleanse the political system recently the election commission also made some recommendations to the law ministry regarding political funding [Music] the nda dispensation brought about major changes in the way political parties are funded with an aim to cleanse the political system and bring about transparency it introduced electoral bonds announced in the 2017 budget electoral bonds account for donations made to all major political parties an electoral bond is a bearer instrument like a promissory note it can be purchased by any indian citizen or a body incorporated in india with a kyc compliant account these bonds are available at specified branches of the state bank of india donors can donate the bonds to their party of choice that can then be cashed through the party's verified account within 15 days the electoral bonds don't bear the name of the donor the sale of first batch of electoral bonds took place between march 1st and march 10 2018. other electoral warned challenger so electoral bonds worth 222 crore rupees were issued in the first tranche itself as per the adr the bjp received 210 crore rupees from contributions through electoral bonds in 2017-18 the government also removed the cap on corporate contributions to political parties with the 2017 finance act the act lifted the 7.5 limit of net profit of a company's past three financial years to make donations to political parties it also removed the obligation to report such contributions in the company's profit and loss account as per the 2017 report of the adr the bjp received the maximum donations of 705.81 crore rupees from 2987 corporate donors the congress received a total contribution of 198.16 crore rupees in the financial bill 2017 the government also amended provisions of the income tax act to cap individual cash donation at two thousand rupees from the earlier twenty thousand the election commission had been pushing for the two thousand rupee cap for a long time in march this year the government passed a key amendment to the foreign contribution regulation act 2010 allowing foreign companies to fund political parties in india meanwhile the election commission is working to limit the spending of political parties on election campaigns in a draft reform that was sent to the law ministry ahead of the five state elections the poll panel recommended a party's expenditure limit should be 50 or less of the combined maximum spend prescribed for all its candidates individual spending to be capped based on whether it's an assembly or a general election anonymous donations to be limited to 20 of a party's total collections bureau report rajya sabha tv political parties and competitive election campaigns require significant resources ideally these resources should be raised and spent transparently india has numerous regulations aimed at cleaning up political funding in our next report we look at some of the methods that indian political parties use to raise funds every political party needs to pitch itself its objectives and intended actions to get votes for itself and that means advertising itself raising funds is aimed at financing advertisement costs and other miscellaneous expenses incurred by the party to promote itself among the various methods of getting a political party funded the most commonly seen are by individual persons public funding and corporate funding a political party may acquire funds by donations from people or companies and so on state funding or public funding is where the government provides funds to parties for election related purposes this allows a party to gather funds without approaching companies or people as it often leads to such contributions having influence over the political parties they fund also state funding helps save the high amount wasted in election campaigns and provides fair opportunities to political parties state funding is of two types direct funding that gives direct funds to political parties indirect funding includes other methods except direct funding like free access to media free access to public places for rallies free or subsidized transport facilities and so on direct funding by tax is prohibited in india however indirect funding is allowed in a regulated manner another method is corporate funding in india donations by corporate bodies is governed by the companies act 2013. section 182 of the act provides that a company needs to be at least three years old to be able to donate to a political party companies can donate up to 7.5 percent of average net profits they made during three simultaneous preceding financial years such contributions must be disclosed in the company's profit and loss accounts approval of the board of directors needs to be obtained by passing a resolution if a company violates provisions of this election it may have to pay a fine of up to five times the amount contributed punishment can go up to six months one of the biggest problems in corporate funding is the use of fake companies to root black money statutory provisions exist to allow the political parties to accept funds or restrict donations section 29b of the representatives of the people's act entitles parties to accept voluntary contributions by any person or a company except government company section 29c of the representatives of the people's act mandates for political parties to declare donation if it exceeds 20 000 rupees such declaration is made by making a report and submitting it to the election commission failing to submit the report on time disentitles party from relief under the income tax act 1961 bureau report rajya sabha tv time for a short break on the program we'll be right back watch the big picture with me [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] the nehru trophy boat race of kerala popularly called vallam kali in local palace this historic boat race dates back to 1952 when pandit nehru visited the state and a pageantry of votes accompanied him from kotyam to alapura the race conducted on the second saturday of august every year is a major tourist attraction it's generally the snake boats which participate in the race and hence the shape of the winner's trophy is also a replica of a snake boat raja sabha tv's youtube channel has just crossed a new exciting milestone it now has over a million subscribers that's more than 10 lakh people who like and want to watch rs tv over 15 crore people have watched our videos [Music] our online viewers are also engaging with us more actively on youtube more and more people like share and comment on our videos we thank you our growing tribe of rs tv viewers we will strive every day to bring you more exciting and engaging content so stay tuned to raja sabha tv [Music] what are the contours of the new education policy by when are we to see the new education policies ready is based on accessibility accountability equity quality when it comes to the digital infrastructure what's the kind of progress which we really have made in the remote areas digital penetration is more 40 lakh classrooms we'll have digital boards your holiday homework should also be abolished because at the end of the day parents end up doing everything my own granddaughter who had done on her own the project work she was not given the a grade only because because it was not done by parents that is the wrong system particularly by the private schools and holiday projects can be minimal not maximum watch to the point with the union hrd minister prakash jabrekar only on rajya sabha television [Music] a labyrinth of hundreds of narrow stairway passages is a significant and historical component of what you popularly know as barra imambala some of these narrow stairways have dead ends some end at precipitous drops while others lead to entrance or exit points historically bhul vulaya was constructed to confuse the enemy intruder and the narrow lanes of the labyrinth can make anyone feel lost the structure contains various strategically built hollows in the corridors [Music] welcome back you're watching in depth on political funding what makes political donations legitimate depends on the laws of that country different countries have different restrictions on political funding for example in the united states and the united kingdom corporation donations are not permissible while in countries like australia and malaysia they are accepted donald john trump do solemnly all political parties need funding to play their part in the political process however the source of funds for political parties varies around the world based on culture precedent and legal standards in many countries political parties are at least partially funded from the national budget in the form of various types of allowances in the united states political funding at the federal level is governed by a law enacted by congress and enforced by the federal election commission an independent federal agency although most campaign spending is privately financed public financing is available for qualifying candidates for the presidency of the u.s it is considered unlawful to accept donations from foreign interests furthermore corporate donations are considered illegal unless political action committees are formed in united kingdom political funding has been a source of controversy for years there are three main ways a political party is funded membership fees party donations and state funding though the latter is reserved for administrative costs declarations must be made for donations above five thousand pounds for national parties and one thousand pound or more for local associations although anonymous donations are allowed any amount more than fifty pound is prohibited in great britain these donations and loans are reported on the electoral commission's online database to ensure there is transparency on the funding of parties most democratic countries ban donations from corporations foreign interests or they may require shareholder approval for company donations but malaysia and australia do not have such a ban in australia political parties and independent candidates receive political funding for campaigning as per the commonwealth electoral act 1918. the australian electoral commission publishes the donations figures annually while political donations are legal in malaysia the election offences act 1954 regulates the maximum expenses allowed for candidates vying for parliamentary seats and for state seats during the campaign period however when it comes to funding of political parties there is no limit and parties are not obliged to disclose the source of the funding which makes political donations a vague subject but entirely legal in the country however in june 2018 the current mahathir bin mohammed government said it will table a new law on political funding in parliament in order to curb corruption and lobbying meanwhile in singapore the political donations act is much stricter compared to other countries this act basically serves to prohibit donations to political parties from anyone who is not defined as a permissible donor such as foreigners anonymous donors are also tightly restricted a donation is only considered anonymous if the recipient is unable to ascertain the identity of the donor money is a necessary evil for the functioning of political parties there is no escaping that but unregulated undisclosed and opaque political funding can threaten the very fabric of democracy and governance bureau report rajya sabha tv and that's it from us in today's edition of in-depth we'll be back same time tomorrow with a focus on some other subject you can also watch our episodes online on youtube and twitter and get back to us with your feedback and suggestions thanks for your time [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Sansad TV

Views: 25,950

Keywords: RSTV, Rajya Sabha TV, In Depth, Political Funding, Transparency, Corruption, Electoral Bond, Income, Political Party expenditure, Association of Democratic Reforms, Election Commission, Corporate contribution, donation, Electoral Trusts, Finance Bill, limit spending, cap on donation, Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, amendment, foreign funding

Id: JYI3V64FcMI

Length: 24min 8sec (1448 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 18 2018