Odisha’s ruling BJD gets Rs 291 crore from unknown sources: ADR report

The democracy watchdog recommends for disclosure of all incomes in audit report

Tamil Nadu’s DMK tops the list with Rs 318 crore while TRS of Telangana is in the third position with Rs 153 crore in donations from unknown sources.

By Nalini Sahu

BHUBANESWAR, MAY 17: Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has received Rs 291.096 crore donations from unknown sources during the 2021-22 fiscal, the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), a think tank, said in its report published on Tuesday.

This is over 94 per cent of the total income of the party, the report added.

The ADR defined the unknown sources as income declared in the Annual Audit reports but without giving a source of income for donations below Rs. 20,000. Such unknown sources include ‘donations via Electoral Bonds,’ ‘sale of coupons’, ‘relief fund,’ ‘miscellaneous income,’ ‘voluntary contributions,’ ‘contribution from meetings/ morchas.’

As per the report, BJD has got a total of Rs 307 crore and 27 lakh from both known and unknown sources in the year 2021-22. Interestingly, it has only received 16 crore and 19 lakh from known sources while the remaining Rs 291 crore has been received from unknown sources. Not just BJD, the total income of many regional parties came from unknown sources, the ADR report has revealed.

As per the ADR report, all the 27 regional parties of the country have received over Rs 1,165 crore from unknown sources while only Rs 145 crore 42 lakh has been received from known sources.

Tamil Nadu’s DMK tops the list with Rs 318 crore from unknown sources followed by BJD. The TRS of Telangana is in the third position with Rs 153 crore in donations from unknown sources.

At present, political parties are not required to reveal the name of individuals or organisations giving less than Rs 20,000 and those who donated through electoral bonds.

In its recommendations, the ADR has said that since a very large percentage of the income of political parties cannot be traced to the original donor, full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the Right to Information Act (RTI Act).

“Some countries where this is done include Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan. In India, during FY 2021-22, total income of national parties from unknown sources totaled 66.04 per cent,” said the report.

The think tank recommended that any organisation that receives foreign funding should not be allowed to support or campaign for any candidate or political party.

“Mode of payment of all donations (above and below Rs 20,000), income from sale of coupons and membership fees should be declared by the parties in the ‘schedules’ of their audit reports, submitted annually to the Income Tax department and the Election Commission of India,” said another ADR recommendation.