Take this, a very minor offense if you consider what happens in our country as major.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/04/09/house-republican-busted-for-illegally-using-campaign-funds-for-personal-expenses/
The income tax law in India allows political parties to keep donations below Rs. 20,000 off the books, under the radar in a way.
Imagine that! That's donation below that amount off the radar. This has been debated to death before. A quick google search would suffice.
Then you have the retrospective amendment proposed in the recent budget that makes all indiscretions of our two major political parties legal. Google FCRA amendment in budget or something if interested. (I can't believe using Google as a verb is still in.)
So, we have one of the most opaque election funding system. Most parties are trying to increase their membership, so I as a member of any political party can give donations to both these parties below Rs. 20,000 a million times. (Damn I wish I hadn't quit CA as a career. Might have had that kinda money. NOT.)
That's like say, Rs. 2,000 crores minus a Rs. 1 crores. Where can I get that kind of money? Don't we have a black money problem?
We know the real estate sector has a black money problem. The government has set a limit of Rs. 30 lakhs for all transactions to be intimated to the income tax authorities. A really high amount I must say. But since we have had a property market boom in this country, good luck trying to find any property in major cities and nearby mini cities within Rs. 30 lakhs. If you do, then you are home free. As an aside, do you think people will fail to register their deals sometimes?
Now there are many sources of black money. There is even over invoicing in export transactions that legitimizes any money that is over paid and then routed through offshore accounts. The recent Panama Papers expose is a little close to that eventuality but I am not calling it that because all the information is not out yet.
Now let's go back to the retrospective amendment proposed in the recent budget and the limit of Rs. 20,000. Two major political parties were said to have received foreign funding and the Delhi High Court held that view as well. The parties have appealed in the Supreme Court and we will have to see what happens.
Now let's look at the amendment for a bit. It whitewashes every deed done from 2010 by these parties. The receipt of contribution from foreign sources is currently banned for political parties. This amendment would reverse that situation since it started happening. Now you're thinking what I am thinking, right?
If not, basically it's a clean slate when a legal process had concurred otherwise. In legal terms I guess the government is within its rights to change the law if it passes the scrutiny of parliament. Let's see what happens there.
I was always skeptical of the possibility of anything happening in the case, but this amendment might have changed my conviction. Hence, you are reading this.
The 20,000 limit means that if political parties had a huge membership expansion then, even if I had contributed less than Rs. 20,000, say Rs. 19,999. It's all off the books. No audit trail. Zilch. Only coupon sales. I could have gotten a million of those coupons, but as long as the denomination is below Rs. 20,000. I could print the same coupons and claimed that I contributed money to a political party. That means I could have my own laundering business. I wish I hadn't quit CA.
I am hoping for Satire. Let's see if we find out what's going on. I'll do some digging as well.
Check out The Last Week Tonight episode where John Oliver talks about Congressional Funding (American Federal Legislature. A little like their parliament.) here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylomy1Aw9Hk
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2016/04/09/house-republican-busted-for-illegally-using-campaign-funds-for-personal-expenses/
The income tax law in India allows political parties to keep donations below Rs. 20,000 off the books, under the radar in a way.
Imagine that! That's donation below that amount off the radar. This has been debated to death before. A quick google search would suffice.
Then you have the retrospective amendment proposed in the recent budget that makes all indiscretions of our two major political parties legal. Google FCRA amendment in budget or something if interested. (I can't believe using Google as a verb is still in.)
So, we have one of the most opaque election funding system. Most parties are trying to increase their membership, so I as a member of any political party can give donations to both these parties below Rs. 20,000 a million times. (Damn I wish I hadn't quit CA as a career. Might have had that kinda money. NOT.)
That's like say, Rs. 2,000 crores minus a Rs. 1 crores. Where can I get that kind of money? Don't we have a black money problem?
Now there are many sources of black money. There is even over invoicing in export transactions that legitimizes any money that is over paid and then routed through offshore accounts. The recent Panama Papers expose is a little close to that eventuality but I am not calling it that because all the information is not out yet.
Now let's go back to the retrospective amendment proposed in the recent budget and the limit of Rs. 20,000. Two major political parties were said to have received foreign funding and the Delhi High Court held that view as well. The parties have appealed in the Supreme Court and we will have to see what happens.
Now let's look at the amendment for a bit. It whitewashes every deed done from 2010 by these parties. The receipt of contribution from foreign sources is currently banned for political parties. This amendment would reverse that situation since it started happening. Now you're thinking what I am thinking, right?
If not, basically it's a clean slate when a legal process had concurred otherwise. In legal terms I guess the government is within its rights to change the law if it passes the scrutiny of parliament. Let's see what happens there.
I was always skeptical of the possibility of anything happening in the case, but this amendment might have changed my conviction. Hence, you are reading this.The 20,000 limit means that if political parties had a huge membership expansion then, even if I had contributed less than Rs. 20,000, say Rs. 19,999. It's all off the books. No audit trail. Zilch. Only coupon sales. I could have gotten a million of those coupons, but as long as the denomination is below Rs. 20,000. I could print the same coupons and claimed that I contributed money to a political party. That means I could have my own laundering business. I wish I hadn't quit CA.
Now I leave you with a thought. Do you think we should have strict disclosures of the funding of political parties? Do we really need that? I saw this brilliant video of The Last Week Tonight where John Oliver did a satirical piece called Congressional Funding. Although it was funny, it made me realize something. We don't even know what happens below the Rs. 20,000 limit. We just can't find out who is giving what to whom in our political system.
That means we don't know anything. We can sit in our homes and watch TV and think we know how the political system works and find our place in it as it suits us. But we know nothing.
That means we don't know anything. We can sit in our homes and watch TV and think we know how the political system works and find our place in it as it suits us. But we know nothing.
We can't even do a satire piece of that quality. There is litigation on right now to strike down that beautiful piece of law, which keeps the contributions below Rs. 20,000 off the books.
I am hoping for Satire. Let's see if we find out what's going on. I'll do some digging as well.
Check out The Last Week Tonight episode where John Oliver talks about Congressional Funding (American Federal Legislature. A little like their parliament.) here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylomy1Aw9Hk
