NBI plans to establish donation pool
KATHMANDU:
National Business Initiative has proposed the creation of a donation pool, in order to make funding of political parties by the business community for the Constituent Assembly election campaign transparent.
“We have proposed to create a basket in the name of respective associations the companies are affiliated with and the businesses can deposit the money they are willing to donate and the basket fund will be responsible for distributing the money to election campaigns of different parties,” informed president of National Business Initiative Padma Jyoti, during an interaction with Society of Economic Journalists - Nepal, here, today.
“The distribution of the donations can be done based on the number of seats won by the party in the last election or based on the number of candidates or any other best suitable modality which needs to be decided,” he added.
“Donations, by definition, need to be voluntary but political parties intimidate most of the business community to make financial contributions for their campaigning,” pointed out Jyoti, adding that there are 601 seats and more than 100 political parties so there is a huge pressure on the private sector.
“We want the pool fund that will be created to be properly audited so that it can be clearly known about who provided how much and to whom,” said Jyoti.
NBI has been lobbying with the Election Commission and political parties to make such donations transparent and terror-free for the private sector. They have agreed to provide donations provided political parties accept account payee cheques and provide receipts to the contributor.
“Our discussion with the youth wings of the major political parties have ended in a positive note as they agreed to accept account payee cheques for donations and we are hopeful that their mother parties will also agree,” informed NBI’s general secretary Surendra Bir Malakar.
“But at the same time, political parties should also ensure that their contributors are not supporting them by disposing their dirty money,” he said, adding that the private sector is demanding an amendment in the Income Tax Act so that such contributions can be included in the company’s expenditure.
Source: THT
