The Congress is the only political party among the six ‘national’ parties which hasn’t submitted its audited accounts for the financial year 2014-15 to the Election Commission, election watchdog (ADR) has said.

Political parties are exempt from paying tax but need to maintain audited accounts and comply with provisions of the income tax to claim this exemption. The ADR found that several major regional parties have defaulted in filing their I-T returns for many years. In its analysis of the returns by political parties, the ADR also noted that substantial part of the donations to parties is below Rs 20,000. Parties only need to make public details of those who make donations of above Rs 20,000.

The ADR said that the Congress was yet to submit its accounts even 141 days after the deadline of 30 November, 2015. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) submitted its audited accounts 104 days late and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) by 63 days. Of the six ‘ parties’, the Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) submitted their annual audited accounts within the deadline.

The audit report of political parties contains information on the various sources of income and items of expenditure of the parties over a financial year. According to the ADR’s analysis of these audited accounts, the income of the five parties (excluding the Congress) increased by 39 per cent from Rs 920.44 crore during 2013-14 to Rs 1,275.78 crore during 2014-15 — a difference of Rs 355.34 crore. The CPI was the only ‘national’ party whose income decreased in the period.