EC opposed to electoral bonds, will write to govt

EC HAS OBJECTIONS TO THE AMENDMENT TO THE FINANCE BILL THAT BARS DISCLOSING DETAILS OF DONORS AND INCLUSION OF CONTRIBUTION FROM BONDS IN IT RETURNS

The election commission (EC) differs with the Centre’s view that the introduction of electoral bonds will curb illegal money in political funding.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the proposal to introduce donations through electoral bonds in his budget speech.

The poll panel, which is set to share its misgivings about the bonds with the government, has objections to the amendment to the Finance Bill that bars disclosing details of donors and inclusion of contribution from bonds in income-tax returns.

The panel is not happy with the changes in the Representation of People’s Act which allow parties not to show collections from bonds in contribution reports filed with the poll panel, sources said.

“If it is not part of the contribution report, it will not be part of the report the election commis sion gives to the tax department the corporate affairs ministry or the ministry of home affairs. It will not be made public any where, so how will there be trans parency?” a source said.

Under section 29 (c) of the Act political parties had to file contri bution reports, complete with the names of donors and their addresses, for amounts above Rs 20,000 from a single person or company.

The commission has also expressed concern over the non implementation of lowering the cash donation component from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,000 as was sug gested by it.