Poll Panel Questions Donation 'Discrepancies', AAP Cries Bias

Poll Panel Questions Donation 'Discrepancies', AAP Cries Bias

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Tuesday asked the AAP to explain donation discrepancies in its 2014-15 financial report with the ruling party in Delhi calling it “grossly incorrect and biased observations” by the poll panel. The show cause notice was sent to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) following an alert by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

The board had written to the poll panel in January that the donations filed by AAP with the income tax department and with the commission did not match.

The AAP, according to the poll panel, submitted its 2014-15 “original Contribution Report” on September 30, 2015, and later a revised report on March 20, 2017.

The first report contained a list of 2,696 donors with the total donations amounting to Rs 37.4 crore and the revised report showed the amount as Rs 37.6 crore received from 8,264 donors.

“A report has been received from the office of the Chairman, CBDT, in January 2018 regarding the concealment of donations received by the AAP during Financial Year 2014-15,” said the Election Commission notice.

The notice, citing the CBDT report, alleged that the AAP bank account had recorded Rs 67.67 crore credits.

“However, the party has disclosed total income of Rs 54.15 crore from donations in its audited accounts. Therefore, it has been held that Rs 13.16 crore has not been accounted for by the party and these donations have been held to be from unknown sources.”

The CBDT report stated that the party had taken Rs 2 crore from hawala operators which “have also been wrongly disclosed as voluntary donations”. (IANS)

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