Assets of 44 regional parties in 2020-21 amounted Rs 2,249cr, SP declared highest asset in FY 2021-22 with Rs 568 cr: Report

New Delhi: The total assets declared by the 44 regional parties during financial year 2020-21 amounted to Rs 2,249.25 crore while 37 regional parties declared total assets of Rs 3,000.62 crore in financial year 2021-22, a report said on Saturday.

A report prepared by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysed the assets and liabilities declared by the 44 Regional Parties in FY 2020-21 and 37 Regional Parties in FY 2021-22.

After going through the declaration of assets by the regional parties for FY 2020-21 and 2021-22, the report said: "The total assets declared by the 44 Regional Parties during FY 2020-21 amounted to Rs 2,249.25 crore while 37 Regional Parties declared total assets of Rs 3,000.62 crore in FY 2021-22."

It said that the total assets declared by the top 10 regional parties during FY 2020-21 amounted to Rs 1,959.351 crore which increased to Rs 2,909.186 crore, by 48.48 per cent during FY 2021-22.

"During FY 2020-21, the highest assets declared by Samajwadi Party totalled Rs 561.46 crore and increased by 1.23 per cent to Rs 568.36 crore during FY 2021-22, followed by BRS with total assets of Rs 319.55 crore in FY 2020-21 and Rs 512.24 crore in FY 2021-22," the report said.

The report stated that DMK had declared assets worth Rs 115.7 crore in 2020-21 which grew to Rs 399.05 crore in Fy 2021-22, even the assets of the YSR Congress Party which was Rs 250.63 crore in FY 2020-21 increased to Rs 343.28 crore in FY 2021-22.

The report stated that the JD-U assets in FY 2020-21 was Rs 86.26 crore and increased to Rs 168.89 crore in FY 2021-22, AAP's assets in FY 2020-21 was Rs 21.82 crore which increased to Rs 37.47 crore and MNS asset was Rs 15.82 crore in Fy 2020-21 which increased to Rs Rs 19.94 crore in FY 2021-22.

The report also stated that during FY 2020-21 and 2021-22, the total assets of DMK grew by 244.88 per cent, assets of BJD grew by 143.92 per cent and assets of JD(U) increased by 95.78 per cent.

It said that in the case of AAP, the total assets increased by 71.76 per cent between FY 2020-21 and 2021-22, from Rs 21.82 crore to Rs 37.47 crore.

AIADMK assets in FY 2020-21 was Rs 260.16 crore decreased to Rs 256.13 crore in FY 2021-22 and even the assets of TDP which stood at RS 133.42 crore in FY 2020-21 decreased to Rs 129.37 crore.

The report stated, “AIADMK and TDP are the only parties among the top 10 parties to show a decrease in their declared annual assets by 1.55 per cent and 3.04 per cent respectively.”

The report after going through the declaration of liabilities by the Regional Parties in FY 2020-21 and 2021-22 said: "The total liabilities declared by the 44 Regional Parties during FY 2020-21 amounted to Rs 54.06 crore while 37 Regional Parties declared total liabilities of Rs 74.18 crore in FY 2021-22.

It said that the liabilities declared by the top 10 Regional Parties during FY 2021-22 amounted to Rs 72.61 crore, an increase of 42.41 per cent from FY 2020-21.

"During FY 2021-22, the highest liabilities were declared by TDP worth Rs 42.58 crore, an increase of 57.18 per cent from FY 2020-21, wherein TDP declared the highest liabilities worth Rs 27.09 crore," the report stated.

The report also said that between FY 2020-21 and 2021-22, the total annual liabilities declared by BJD and AAP showed an increase of 1481.40 per cent and 222.50 per cent, respectively.

"Between FY 2020-21 and 2021-22, the total annual liabilities declared by JD(S) and AJSU Party showed a decrease of 8.29 per cent and 8.33 per cent respectively," it said.

After analysing the Capital or Reserve Funds declared by the Regional Parties in FY 2020-21 and 2021-22, the report said that the total Capital or Reserve fund set aside by the Regional Parties during FY 2020-21 was Rs 2,195.19 crore and Rs 2926.43 crore for FY 2021-22, after adjusting for liabilities for the respective years, from the total assets of the parties.

The report said that for FY 2021-22, Samajwadi Party declared the highest capital of Rs 568.03 crore followed by Rs 502.55 crore of BRS and Rs 473.06 crore of BJD.

The report also said that during FY 2020-21, MNS declared the lowest capital fund of Rs 15.82 crore followed by AAP with Rs 21.18 crore among the top 10 regional parties.

The reserve funds of DMK increased by 263.19 per cent from Rs 107.65 crore in FY 2020-21 to Rs 391 crore in FY 2021-22, while that of BJD increased by 143.33 per cent.

"In case of TDP, the reserve funds decreased by 18.38% between FY 2020-21 and 2021-22," the report said.

The report also stated that for FY 2020-21, audit reports of nine regional parties -- IUML, JKNC, JKNPP, UPPL, LJSP, MNF, RLSP, RSP and UDP are unavailable and AIMIM party statement is incomplete on the website of the ECI while 38 parties have delayed their submission by several days, ranging from 1 day to 590 days.

It also said that for FY 2021-22, audit reports of 17 regional parties -- AIMIM, BPF, HSPDP, IUML, IPFT, JKNC, JKNPP, LJSP, MNF, MPC, RLSP, RLTP, RSP, SHS, SKM, UDP and ZNP are unavailable on the website of the ECI, at the time of preparation of this report and 17 parties have delayed their submission by several days, ranging from 2 days to 346 days.

The ADR observed that regional parties failed to adhere to the ICAI guidelines that direct parties to declare details of the financial institutions, banks or agencies from whom loans were taken.

It also said that the details of fixed assets received as donations by the parties should be declared such as the original cost of the asset, any additions or deductions, depreciation written off, cost of construction, etc.

"The same should also be declared of fixed assets purchased by the political parties - not all Regional Parties declared this information," it said.

It also highlighted that details of loans given by the parties in cash or kind should be specified and if it constitutes more than 10 per cent of the total loans, the nature and amount of such loans should be declared specifically by the parties - not declared by all Regional Parties.

Mentioning the ICAI guidelines, on auditing of political parties which were also endorsed by the Election Commission in order to improve transparency in the finances of political parties, remain guidelines only and have not been actively taken up by the political parties as a mandatory procedure to disclose details of their income.