PANJIM: The Goa Forward Party (GFP) has failed to submit its audit report for the financial year 2017-18 to the Election Commission of India (ECI), states a report by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The report, released to the media on Thursday, states that Goa’s oldest regional party, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) delayed submitting the report by 17 days. The ECI had declared October 30, 2018 as the last date for the regional parties to submit details of their audited reports to the Commission.
The report was based on analyses of the total income and expenditure incurred by the regional parties across the country during FY 2017-18, which were declared by the 37 parties in their I-T returns submitted to the ECI. The income tax returns/audit reports of regional parties were obtained from the ECI, the report states.
In view of their findings, the ADR has recommended that income of any party which does not submit its I-T returns or donation statement to the ECI on or before the due date, should not be tax-exempted and defaulting parties should be derecognised.
“Full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI on lines with countries such as Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, US and Japan.
