Political parties will now be able to file financial accounts online

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 formats.

Political parties will now be able to file financial accounts online. The Election Commission has developed a web portal for filing three details- submiting contribution reports, auditing annual accounts, and election expenditure details. The measure has been enabled with the launch of a new web-portal (https://iems.eci.gov.in/) to facilitate these things.

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 Commission has been informed about this in a letter written to all political parties. The commission has two objectives behind this. One is to remove filing difficulties, and the other is to ensure timely filing of accounts in a standardised format. According to the commission, the online availability of data is expected to increase compliance and transparency.

For this, an online portal and a manual explaining the practical usage and frequently asked questions have been prepared. Training sessions will be organised by the commission for the teams.

The online availability of the data is expected to enhance the level of compliance and transparency. The on-line portal also has a facility for sending reminders in the form of messages on the registered mobile number and registered emails of the authorised representatives of the political party so that the dates of compliances are not missed.

A comprehensive guiding manual with graphical representations, and FAQs have also been sent to the political parties explaining the online module and the process of filing reports online. To give further guidance on the on-line filing, the ECI would also organise a hands-on training programme for the designated person(s) from various political parties.

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.