The Election Commission (EC) cracked the whip on 339 Regional Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPP) for noncompliance taking the taking total tally to 537 defaulting RUPPs since May 25, 2022. While EC declared 253 Regional Unrecognised Political Parties inactive and barred them from availing of benefits, an additional 86 Non-existent parties were deleted from the EC list.
According to the Income Tax Department, 199 unrecognized registered political parties had claimed Rs 445 crore donations in 2018-19, while 219 similar parties had claimed donations of Rs 608 crore in 2019-20. The unrecognised parties failed to provide information to the Election Commission under Form 24 required as per Section 29 of the Act. Some parties claimed donations of over Rs 100 to 150 crores defying the rules and regulations. EC had struck off about 198 entities from its list of RUPP after they were found non-existent during physical verification.
Section 80GGC of Income Tax allows an individual to donate any amount to any political party registered under section 29A of the Representation of the People Act. The individual then can avail of tax deduction of up to 100 per cent of the donated amount. Hawala operators formed political parties registered with the EC to transfer huge amounts to these political entities via cheques and online transactions showing donations.
The funds were transferred from the account of the political parties to different accounts showing various expenses. The operators layered the funds further with help of shell companies.
14/09/2022
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