The Political parties will now be able to file their financial accounts online to the Election Commission.
- The measure has been enabled with the launch of a new web-portal (https://iems.eci.gov.in/) to facilitate the online filing of Contribution Report, Audited Annual Account and Election Expenditure Statement by the Political Parties.
Key points
- These financial statements are required to be submitted by political parties to the Election Commission/Chief Electoral Officers of States/Union Territories, as per the Representation of People’s Act, 1951 & transparency guidelines issued by the Commission, from time to time, over the last many years.
- The facility has been created with twin objectives: firstly, to facilitate political parties in overcoming the difficulties in physical filing of reports, and secondly, to ensure timely filing of financial statements in the prescribed/standardised formats.
- The online availability of the data is expected to enhance the level of compliance and transparency.
- The political parties not wishing to file the financial report through online mode will have to convey the reasons for not filing on-line to the Commission in writing and may continue to file its reports in hard copy along with CDs/Pen drive in the prescribed formats.
- The commission will, in turn, publish all such reports online, along with a letter of justification sent by the party for not filing financial statements online.
