Press Release: The audit reports of 31 regional parties are not available on the ECI website at the time of preparation of this report even after 207 days since the due date for submission.

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May 27, 2026, 2:30:16 AM (4 days ago) May 27

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Press Release

Date: 27th May, 2026

Analysis of Income & Expenditure of Regional Political Parties for FY 2024-25

For the complete reports in English and Hindi with details of top three sources of income, top items of expenditure of the Regional Parties and the status of submission of their audit reports for FY 2024-25, kindly access the reports on the website: https://adrindia.org/content/Analysis-of-Income-and-Expenditure-Regional-Parties-FY-2024-25

Executive Summary

Political parties have multiple sources of funding and thus accountability and transparency should be an important aspect of their functioning. It is essential to have comprehensive and transparent accounting methods and systems which should reveal the true financial position of the parties.

The Election Commission of India (ECI), in its letter dated 19^th November,’14 addressed to the Presidents/General Secretaries of all political parties, stated that it was mandatory for the parties to submit details of their audit reports to the Commission.

This report analyses the total income and expenditure incurred, all over India, by 36 out of the 67 Regional Parties during FY 2024-25, as declared by the parties in their audit reports submitted to the ECI. The Regional Parties include Apna Dal(Soneylal), AGP, AIADMK, AIFB, AIMIM, AINRC, AITC, AIUDF, AJSU Party, BJD, BRS, CPI, CPI(ML)(L), DMDK, INLD, JD(S), JD(U), JKPDP, JMM, Janasena Party, KC(M), MGP, MNF, MNS, NDPP, NPF, RGP, RJD, RLTP, SAD, SDF, SKM, SP, TDP, YSR- Congress and ZPM.

Status of submission of audited reports by the Regional Parties, FY 2024-25

The due date for submission of annual audited accounts for the parties was 31st October,'25.
15 parties had submitted their audit reports on time, while 21 parties delayed their submission by several days, ranging from 2 days to 96 days.
Audit reports of the remaining 31 regional parties for FY 2024-25 are unavailable on the website of the ECI at the time of preparation of this report even after a delay of 207 days (as on 27^th May 2026). These include Bharat Adivasi Party, Bodoland Peoples Front, Citizen Action Party – Sikkim, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Goa Forward Party, Hill State People’s Democratic Party, Indian Union Muslim League, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party, Jannayak Janta Party, Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (J), Kerala Congress, Lok Jan Shakti Party, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Naam Tamilar Katchi, Nationalist Congress Party, Nationalist Congress Party - Sharadchandra Pawar, People’s Democratic Front, People’s Party of Arunachal, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, Republican Party of India (Athawale), Revolutionary Socialist Party, Shiv Sena, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackrey), Tipra Motha Party, United Democratic Party, United People’s Party, Liberal, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, Voice of the People Party and Zoram Nationalist Party.
Hence, this report analyses the income and expenditure of 36 Regional Political Parties, whose audit reports are available on the ECI website for FY 2024-25.

Total income declared by Regional Political Parties, FY 2024-25

The total income of the 36 Regional Parties for FY 2024-25 was Rs 1192.944 cr.
TDP reported having the highest income of Rs 228.315 cr, which forms 19.14% of the total income of all the parties analysed, followed by AITC with an income of Rs 219.3538 cr or 18.39% and YSR- Congress whose income was Rs 140.386 cr or 11.77% of the total income of the 36 Regional parties analysed in this report.
The total income of top 5 parties amounted to Rs 821.867 cr, which comprised 68.89% of the total income of the political parties analysed collectively.

Comparison of Income of Regional Parties, FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25

For all 36 political parties whose data is available for both the years, 19 parties have shown an increase in their income from FY 2023-24 to FY 2024-25 while 17 parties have shown a decline in their income during this period.
Total income of the 36 parties decreased from Rs 2463.175 cr in FY 2023-24 to Rs 1192.944 cr in FY 2024-25, a total decrease of 51.57% or Rs 1270.231 cr.
AIADMK reported the highest increase in its income of Rs 39.248 cr, followed by MNS and Janasena Party which declared a total increase of Rs 37.744 cr and Rs 24.567 cr respectively, between FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25.

Unspent Income of Regional Parties, FY 2024-25

There are 15 Regional parties who declared a part of their income as remaining unspent for FY 2024-25 while 21 political parties spent more than the income collected during the year.
TDP has more than Rs 166.985 cr of its total income remaining unspent while MNS and AIADMK have Rs 36.268 cr and Rs 35.856 cr respectively, of their income remaining unspent for FY 2024-25.
AITC, YSR- Congress, BRS, BJD, JD(U), SP, SDF, JD(S), SKM, AGP, AIUDF, Apna Dal (Soneylal), DMDK, ZPM, KC(M), Revolutionary Goans Party, AIFB, JKPDP, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, NDPP and NPF are the 21 regional parties that declared spending more than their income. YSR-Congress has declared spending the highest amount of Rs 199.817 cr or 142.33% more than its income.

Total expenditure incurred by Regional Parties, FY 2024-25

The total declared expenditure of the 36 Regional parties for the FY 2024-25 was Rs 1433.068 cr.
Total expenditure incurred by the top 5 parties is Rs 1111.582 cr or 77.567% of the total expenditure as reported by the 36 political parties.
Top 5 parties that have incurred highest expenditure are YSR-Congress which spent Rs 340.203 cr or 23.739%, followed by BJD which spent Rs 288.44 cr or 20.127%, AITC which spent Rs 227.5989 cr or 15.882%, BRS which spent Rs 180.599 cr or 12.602% and SP spent Rs 74.741 cr or 5.215% of the total expenditure.

All sources of Income declared by Regional Political parties, FY 2024-25

36 Regional Parties collected Rs 702.362 cr or 58.876% of their total income from voluntary contributions for FY 2024-25.
Among regional parties, AITC declared the highest donations/contributions at Rs 184.08 cr, followed by YSR Congress Party (Rs 140.05 cr), TDP (Rs 85.20 cr), AIADMK (Rs 66.3074 cr), BJD (Rs 60.00 cr) and MNS (Rs 58.447 cr).
23.24% or Rs 277.213 cr of the total income was generated through Interest Income by the 36 Regional Parties during FY 2024-25.

Observations of ADR

Audit reports of 21 parties out of the 36 parties analyzed in this report were available on the ECI website after a delay of 2 days to 96 days from the last date of submission.
The audit reports of 31 regional parties are not available on the ECI website at the time of preparation of this report even after 207 days since the due date for submission.
The most common and popular items of expenditure for regional parties for FY 2024-25 are Administrative & General Expenses and Election Expenditure.

Recommendations of ADR

The Supreme Court gave a judgment on September 13, 2013 declaring that no part of a candidate’s affidavit should be left blank. Along the same lines, we recommend that the Election Commission of India impose rules that no part of the Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000 should be left blank.
Full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI.
According to the Finance Act, 2017, Section 13A of the IT Act was amended to state that tax exemption will be given to registered political parties “Provided also that such political party furnishes a return of income for the previous year in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (4B) of section 139 on or before the due date under that section.” Thus, any party which does not submit its IT returns on or before the due date, their income should not be tax-exempt and defaulting parties should be derecognized.
Those parties not following the ICAI guidelines for auditing of reports should be scrutinized by the IT department.
All political parties must provide all information on their finances under the Right to Information Act. This will only strengthen political parties, elections and democracy.
Penal or stringent action (instead of only sending reminder letters) to be taken against recognised political parties for delaying or defaulting on the submission of their audit and contribution reports each year. Specific laws that command culpability like Section 13A of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Section 29 (C) of the Representation of People Act, 1951 which lay down a proviso stating cancellation of tax exemption to political parties if they fail to submit their financial statements has not been stringently enforced by the Election Commission. Every year, between FY 2017-18 to 2024-25, at least 18 parties defaulted on the submission of their annual reports.