At ₹3,623 Crores, BJP's FY20 Income 50% More Than Previous Year

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party received ₹3,623.28 crores as income from various sources in financial year 2019 - 2020 (FY20), shows its annual audit report filed with the Election Commission of India.

This period in FY20, which shows such an increase in the BJP's income also corresponds to the Lok Sabha elections that took place over April and May 2019 - near the start of the financial year - where the party won a resounding second term in power.

Though the statement was filed on July 22, it was made available only last night.

This figure is a nearly 50% rise over its income in FY19, which was at nearly ₹2,410 crores.

In FY20, the BJP also reported north of ₹2,555 crores as income from electoral bonds. In FY19, its income from them stood at ₹1,490 crores and ₹210 crores in FY18.

In the same period - FY20 - the BJP incurred an expenditure of ₹1,651 crores of which ₹1,352 crores worth of spending has been recorded under the head 'Election/General Propaganda'. This means that in FY20, a surplus of ₹1,972 crores was carried over into its general fund.

The sum of the expenditure is also a huge increase over what it spent in FY19, which was just over ₹1,005 crores.

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In comparison, the Indian National Congress has filed an expenditure of ₹998 crores in the same period, and an income of ₹682 crores. However, the Congress had filed their audit report in June this year, and most other national parties in February.

Here's how the BJP's income and expenditure for FY20 breaks down.

Income

The party received just above ₹21 crores from fees and subscription. Of this, ₹28.7 lakhs was application fees, ₹1.293 crores of delegate fees and ₹20.12 crores of membership fees.

The biggest pie of the BJP's income however was voluntary contributions, with ₹2,555 crores of them coming from electoral bonds. ₹844 crores has also been listed as 'other contributions'. Smaller contributions shown as voluntary as ₹34.34 lakhs for meetings, ₹5.03 crores for morchas ₹23.05 crores from the Aajiwan Sahayog Nidhi.

The party also obtained ₹172 crores worth of interest from banks and ₹8.75 lakhs rent.

The BJP also declared ₹73.46 lakhs from sale of assets, ₹62.34 lakhs as miscellaneous income and ₹34.05 lakhs from interest on income tax refund.

Interestingly, the party has also declared an income of ₹1.3 lakh from the sale of old newspapers.

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Expenditure

While the overall expenditure worth ₹1,651 crores of the BJP falls under many subcategories. Among them however, those seeing the biggest jump when compared to what was incurred in FY19 were related to campaigning, publicity and electioneering.

For instance, the party spent more than ₹16 crores on the purchase of publicity material for distribution. In the previous FY, it was just ₹5 lakhs. The party's financial assistance to candidates also zoomed to ₹199 crores from ₹60 crores in the previous year.

The party spent ₹1.26 crores under the head 'purchase of publications', of which its expenditure in the previous year was nil.

Under the subhead 'advances paid', the party spend ₹787.83 crores, up from just ₹29 crores in the previous financial year.

The BJP spent ₹90.58 crores on morchas, rallies, andolans and call centre expenses; with the party spending just a little more than ₹69 crores on them in the past financial year.

Miscellaneous expenses also saw a sharp rise, with the part spending ₹17.93 crores on them, compared to only ₹1.79 crores in previous financial year.

Read the audit report here.

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