ACCOUNTS OF ELECTION EXPENSES

Maintenance of accounts and the details of expenditure incurred in campaign.

No. 76/EE/96-Judl.II, dated: 12th April, 1996.

To

1. The Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories.
2. The Chief Electoral Officers of all States and Union Territories.

Subject :- Maintenance of Accounts of election expenses

Sir,

In Pursuance of the Supreme Court's order in writ petition No.24 of 1995 ("Common Cause Vs. Union of India and others", the Commission has already issued instructions regarding the maintenance of accounts by the candidates and the details of expenditure incurred by the political parties in the campaign in the current general elections, commencing from 19th March, 1996 i.e. the date of announcement of elections.

2. The Commission has further directed that the above details of expenditure should be submitted by all political parties as soon as may be after the current elections are over and in, any case, not letter then 5.00 p.m. on 31st July, 1996.

3. One of the items of expenditure for which the political parties have been asked to submit details in their above referred accounts is the expenditure on use of aircraft's/helicopters.

4. With the Commission's instructions in its letter No. 437/6/96/PLN. III dated 09.04.1996 the earlier instructions of the Commission contained in its letter No. 37/6/94/MSC-Vol.V dated 20th October, 1994 that the use of Govt. aircraft/helicopter (including those owned by public sector undertakings and corporations) should be on an absolutely equitable basis has been totally superseded. It has now been directed that excepting in the case of the prime minister there will be an absolute ban on the use of Govt-owned/funded/hired means of transport for any reason other than security and that the use of the State owned aircraft (whether fixed wing or helicopter or propelled) at state cost or hired at state cost is prohibited for any reason including security and no exceptions will be made.

5. In view of the latest instructions as above, the use of any State-owned aircraft or those of any Govt. Companies, corporations, etc., for campaigning during an election in any form and on any other pretext of official work is totally prohibited.

6. Instances of Chief Ministers and others using helicopters for campaigning are being reported and received in the Commission through various sources.

7. The State Government/Union Territory Administration should, therefore, recover the full cost of propulsion, hire charges of such aircraft/helicopters used earlier by the Chief Minister or any other minister or person belonging to any political party after the commencement of the elections and uptill now and report the details of such hiring, including the details of persons who traveled by such mode to the Chief Electoral Officer immediately.

8. Hereafter no state-owned aircraft/helicopter will be permitted to be used as stated in para 5 above.

9. For enabling a cross-checking of the expenditure shown by the political parities on the above item, the Commission will require all the relevant information form the political parties in respect of all official aircraft/helicopters used by them during the elections uptil now. You should, therefore, immediately instruct all the authorities concerned with the hiring/chartering of official aircraft/helicopters to maintain proper and detailed record of official aircraft/helicopters chartered by political parties for use of the Chief Ministers and other dignitaries uptil now. Such record should, among others, include flight manifestos showing the dates, time and destination of the air flights, together with the names of persons who make use of such flights, and also the amounts charged from/paid by the political parties concerned.

10. The chief electoral officer should also direct all the political parties to furnish separately the details of the each hiring of helicopters/aircraft owned by any person, institution or the Government along with the details of amount paid for such hiring with documented proof of the actual payments including that for propulsion and halting charges, if any.

11. Such records may be summoned by the commission at short notice as and when required.

12. Kindly acknowledge receipt and ensure compliance of the above instructions of the commission.



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