While the country’s economy suffers a serious injury, both BJP and Congress enjoyed a rise in their income by whopping numbers in the 2018-19 financial year. Not just BJP, other national parties also saw a jump in income ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the election year 2019.
Political party’s ‘Acche Din’
According to an article, the Bharathiya Janatha Party recorded a whopping income of Rs 2410 crore in 2018-19, which is nearly 135% more than its income in the earlier financial year. In the total income Rs, 1,450 crores alone came from electoral duties, the BJP said in its annual report. The party has also declared a total expenditure of Rs 1,005 crore for 2018-19. Furthermore, the ruling party has shown that Rs 792.4 crore as expenditure on the election and general propaganda in 2018-19.
On the other side, the Congress party has reported Rs 918 crore of income in 2018-19, which is 361% more than its income in the earlier financial year. The fresh figures hint that the Congress party, which had been reporting a decline in its annual incomes for four consecutive years, recovered on this aspect. The party not only enjoyed an income rise in simple terms but its share in income collected by the two parties also jumped for the first time after falling for five continuous years. Previously, its share fell below 50% in 2013-14 and then dropped every year, reaching just 16% in 2017-18. It has now grown to 28% in 2018-19.
Highest annual growth
In terms of expenditure, the BJP spent Rs 1005 crore in 2018-19, compared to Rs 470 crore spent by Congress. A preponderance of their spending was on an election or general party promotion – the BJP spent 79% on this while the Congress spent 66%. The passage in this kind of spending was higher in 2017-18 when the BJP spent 75% while Congress spent just 15% of their incomes on elections or general party advertisements.
Both party’s income in 2018-19 was the highest they received in 18 years for which the data is accessible and this was the highest annual growth in their incomes at this time.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is another national party that declared with their income being over ₹192 crores in FY19 as compared to an income of just ₹5.16 crores in FY18. The TMC made a declaration of income of ₹97 crores through electoral bonds in FY19, over zero income from the scheme in FY18.
The summary was developed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) after examining the total income and expenditure incurred by the seven national parties as declared in their Income Tax Returns (ITR) submitted to the EC.
