The Budget 2017 apparently aims at Swachh Politics as well! Cash donations to political parties limited to Rs 2000. The Rs 2000 cap on cash is a reduction from the current Rs 20000.
The political funding of Indian parties is a sea of unknown sources and unaccountable for funds. Through the months of demonetisation, it was evident that public anger was growing exponentially at political parties, including the BJP, who have been demanding the average citizen prove every paisa they had was legal - while calmly swallowing thousands of crores with no accountability.
As per a report released by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), 83% of total income of the Indian National Congress, 65% of the BJP, 94% of the Samajwadi Party and 100% of the Bahujan Samaj Party was from anonymous sources.
While it seemed like there would be no response from those in power, the government apparently tried to address the issue before it exploded into a massive mass movement.
Earlier, political parties could accept Rs 20,000 as cash donations from individuals. Now that limit has been lower drastically to Rs 2000 per person. For everything above that, Finance Minister Jaitley mooted for cheques, electronic transfers or a new concept - RBI election bonds.
The election bonds are an innovative idea. The supporter can purchase these bonds from the RBI and hand them over to the party of his choice. That party then has to redeem the bonds within a particular (as of now unspecified) period. The money from the bonds can only be put into the official accounts of the party.
The move, undoubtedly not very popular among many of those assembled in Parliament, is a small step towards transparency. It remains shocking that Indian political parties are allowed to collected money, usually in cash, with no accountability what so ever. The phenomenon of hundreds of parties existing merely on paper as a front to accept large sums of money is well known.
While this will probably not cause a drastic clean up of the political system, it is at the very least a small step in the right direction.
