Who funds India's political parties? Report says most donors anonymous

New Delhi: It is the best known secret of Indian politics. And it comes as no surprise that India's national, state and regional parties earned Rs. 4,662 crore in the last seven years, mostly in form of donations and contributions, but there is a huge cover of secrecy and lack of transparency in who gave the money to them, a report released by two NGOs has claimed.

The report shows that the Congress has earned the most, Rs. 2,008 crore, between 2004 and 2011 and its annual income has gone up steadily. At number two is the BJP, which in the same period made Rs. 994 crore. Its finances too improved steadily in the same period.

The report analyses income tax returns of political parties and donation documents made available to the Election Commission. The NGOs, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), campaign for transparency in the finances and funding of political parties.

The NGOs say that there is no standardised format for political parties to declare their incomes. A major source of income for all parties is the sale of "coupons" instead of receipts. Voluntary contributions and donations are also on top of the list of sources of income. None of these, the NGOs' report says, are transparent ways to making and declaring money.

To bring some transparency into political funding, the Representation of People Act of 1951 says that political parties must declare details of contributions of more than Rs. 20,000. This report though points out major loopholes, like parties declaring every single contribution of Rs. 20,000 made by any person at one time. But if several donations totalling to more than Rs. 20,000 are made by one person or company in one year, then parties interpret it differently. That leaves them the option of breaking up donations into amounts less than Rs. 20,000.

The BSP (which is third on the list in terms of income) for instance, has shown an income of Rs. 172 crore in between 2009 and 2011 but not declared a single contribution of more than Rs. 20,000. The CPM, which made almost Rs. 150 crore in that period, has shown only 1.39 per cent of contributions of more than Rs. 20,000. For the same period, Congress has shown 11.89 per cent and BJP 22.76 per cent.

The parties with highest "donations" are the Telengana Rashtra Samiti at 99.98 per cent and Lok Janshakti Party at 89.88 per cent.

The other major source of income for the major parties is also donations from corporate houses. The report has a list of which corporate house made how much donation and to which party. Most of them contribute to both the major national parties, the Congress and the BJP. For instance, the General Electoral Trust made a donation of Rs. 36.41 crore to Congress and Rs. Rs. 26.07 crore to BJP between 2004 and 2011. Torrent Power similarly gave Rs. 14.15 crore to Congress and Rs. 13 crore to BJP. And a lot of the companies are new ones involved in infrastructure like power, steel and construction, beating the traditional firms of Tatas and Birlas. 

Homemakers likely to get monthly salary from husbands soon

New Delhi: Housewives may soon start getting monthly salaries from their husbands with the government mulling a proposal which would make it mandatory for men to share a certain percentage of their income with their wives who stay back and do household chores.

The proposal is being considered by Women and Child Development (WCD) ministry for socio-economic empowerment of homemakers.

"We have got a survey conducted on this theme and are planning to hold more consultations about this plan, which at present is in consultation stage... Whenever we ask housewives what they do, most of them say they do nothing. So we feel that a mechanism can be devised to quantify and calculate the value of work that they do for their families. It will give a more socially empowered identity to these women," WCD minister Krishna Tirath told PTI.

She said the idea, mooted by some NGOs, would also be discussed in a meeting to be held with ministers of different states on September 17-18.

"The work that women do at home is also economic activity but it goes unaccounted. If children are sent to a creche, then money has to be spent. If somebody from outside does cooking or any other work, money has to be spent. And the quality of work of homemakers cannot even be compared with others," Ms Tirath said.

The minister said if a portion of a husband's income is allocated as wife's share, it is likely to be spent on better food for children, on their education and the overall quality of standard of living of that household.

"Working in homes is economic activity and if this is recognised, it will give us a truer reflection of what the GDP of our country is. It will also help us know more accurate figure of the rate of real unemployment in the country," Ms Tirath said.

Rupee falls to 55.39/$ in opening trade

Rupee fell to 55.39/40 on Friday versus its previous close of 55.26/27, after four sessions of gains, tracking a weaker global risk sentiment that hit Asian shares.

Trading is seen range-bound for the session and month-end oil demand may push pair higher, especially after a two-day banking strike hit volumes, but steady euro at near seven-week highs versus the dollar on Friday may cap gains.

Government's move to push FDI proposals may offer some sentimental support to rupee with 10 proposals of drug makers up for consideration.

MSCI's Asia ex-Japan down 1 per cent, while India's main stock indexes down around 0.5 per cent on scaled back expectations of more stimulus from the Fed and concerns about global growth.

Copyright @Thomson Reuters 2012