How political parties raise funds, officially

The Indian National Congress is going to fund itself by building a corpus, which is the largest one among the Indian political parties. Congress had generated funds through selling coupons when other political parties relied on voluntary donations. Other major sources of income for the parties analysed for last two years were "Levy" for CPM and receipt from sale of coupons for NCP, reports The Indian Express.

The Indian National Congress has taken the next step in politics by moving away from the old era of donations to fund its activities to one of selling coupons to build up a corpus – the largest one among parties in India.

Congress sold coupons worth Rs 600 crore to generate funds during 2007-09 while most of the other political parties were dependent on voluntary donations for fund raising.

The oldest political party, Congress, generated Rs 598.4 crore during 2007-08 and 2008-09 through the sale of coupons while it received donations of Rs 72 crore. The party also generated Rs 38 crore as interest during the period, reveal income tax returns filed by the party.

Funds for Bharatiya Janta Party were mainly sourced from voluntary donations during the period which amounted to Rs 297.7 crore while interest of Rs 21.29 crore and "Ajiwan Sahyog Nidhi" were the other sources.

Bahujan Samaj Party also relied on "contributions" of Rs 202.94 crore while membership and interest worth Rs 43.20 crore and Rs 5.18 crore contributed respectively, the data received by Association of Democratic Reforms, a voluntary group, through RTI revealed.

Other major sources of income for the parties analysed for 2007-08 and 2008-09 were "Levy" for CPM Rs 46 crore and receipt from sale of coupons for NCP Rs 50 crore, it shows.

Major expenditure of the Congress party during the period was incurred on election -- Rs 215 crore -- while on publicity it spent early Rs 58 crore. The party also distributed aid worth Rs 56 crore to "others".

The BJP spent maximum funds worth Rs 89.16 crore on advertising and publicity while the BSP made purchases worth Rs 85 crore on immovable properties.

During the period, Congress has declared the "maximum aggregate income" of Rs 718 crore followed by BJP which has declared assets worth Rs 344 crore and BSP Rs 252 crore, it said.

Mayawati's BSP has shown maximum growth in terms of total income of Rs 69.74 crore in 2007-08 to Rs 182 crore in 2008-09 which is nearly 161 per cent while NCP shows a growth of nearly 130 per cent followed by Congress which shows an increment of 125 per cent.

Communist Party of India is the only party whose income dipped during the period. From Rs 1.24 crore in 2007-08, the income of the party has dipped to Rs 1.16 crore in 2008-09 which is a decline of 6.45 per cent.

Read the article on Miracle Of Democracy.