5 national parties' rake in Rs 1,276 cr total income in FY15

Total income of five national parties, including BJP and BSP, touched Rs 1,275.79 crore in 2014-15 period, with most of the amount coming from grants and donations, says a report.

Out of the total donations, around 55 percent or Rs 582.72 crore came from "donors whose details are not available in the public domain," as per the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

The figures have been compiled from the annual audited accounts submitted by five political parties -- BJP, BSP, NCP, CPM and CPI.

"The five national parties (BJP, BSP, NCP, CPM and CPI) have declared a total income of Rs 1,275.79 crore, collected from all over India," it said in a release.

Among them, BJP saw the highest income at Rs 970.43 crore during 2014-15 period, accounting for over 76 percent of the total income.

"CPM declared the second highest income of Rs 123.92 crore which forms 9.71 percent of the total income of the national parties," the release said.

During 2014-15 period, total income of BSP stood at Rs 111.95 crore while that of NCP and CPI were at Rs 67.64 crore and 1.84 crore, respectively.

According to ADR, Indian National Congress (INC) was yet to submit a copy of its audited report for 2014-15 to the Election Commission at the time of release of the report.

"Grant/ donations/ contributions or funds collected by the parties were the top source of income of the five national parties, forming 88.73 percent of their total income," the release noted.

BJP declared the maximum income from donations at Rs 940.39 crore followed by BSP (Rs 92.80 crore) and NCP (Rs 38.82 crore), it added.

"Total income of political parties from unknown sources (income specified in the IT Returns whose sources are unknown), for the FY 2014-15 is Rs 685.36 crore, which is 54 percent of the total income of the parties," ADR said.

The unknown sources are income declared in the IT returns but without giving source from donations below Rs 20,000.

Such unknown sources include sale of coupons, relief fund, miscellaneous income, voluntary contributions and contribution from meetings, the release said.