New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the richest party in India, a report has found, and it has the lion’s share of the total assets of all national parties put together.
According to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), the BJP’s assets was worth Rs 6,064 crore in the 2021-22 financial year, having grown by Rs 1,050 from the year before.
The ruling party also accounts for 68 per cent of the assets of all national political parties in the country. According to the report, over half of all BJP assets are in the form of fixed deposits.
On the other hand, the principal Opposition party Congress’s assets was worth Rs 805 crore in 2021-22, an increase of Rs 110 crore from the year before.
The ADR report analysed assets and liabilities of all eight national parties at that time, including BJP, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), National People’s Party, Nationalist Congress Party, Communist Party of India, and the Trinamool Congress.
However, the last three in the list were stripped of their national party status by the Election Commission of India earlier this year.
“Source for the data used in the report are the audited accounts submitted by the political parties to the Income Tax Department and the Election Commission of India,” ADR said.
Assets of other national parties, other than the BJP, amounted to Rs 2,800 crore – the CPI(M) had Rs 735 crore, the BSP Rs 690 crore and the Trinamool Congress Rs 458 crores. The NPP of Conrad Sangma accounted for Rs 1.8 crore. Total assets of all national parties – including the BJP – between 2004-05 to 2021-22 have increased by 1,947 per cent from Rs 431.33 crore to Rs 8829.158 crore, the report said.
The report found that liabilities have consistently fallen for national parties since 2016-17. In the year between 2021 and 2022, the total liabilities had fallen from Rs 103 crore to Rs 62 crore.
The Congress, however, had the maximum liability of Rs 41.95 crore (66 per cent), followed by the CPI(M) with Rs 12.21 cr. The BJP had a minimal Rs 5 crore.
The report noted that national parties continued to flout guidelines issued by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), which were put in place to bring more transparency.
“ICAI guidelines, on auditing of political parties which were also endorsed by the ECI in order to improve transparency in the finances of political parties, remain guidelines only and have not been actively taken up by the political parties as a mandatory procedure to disclose details of their income,” ADR said.
It added, “These guidelines were meant to standardize the format of financial statements of parties apart from improving disclosure of income, expenditure, assets and liabilities of the unique association, and political parties.”
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