EC's Eagle Eye on Black Money use in Polls

To crack down on rampant use of black money in elections, the Election Commission has appointed a top income tax brass as the Director- General of Expenditure to keep an eagle eye on the poll campaign funding.

P D Dash, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer who was an appellate authority in the Central Board of Direct Taxes, has been given the coveted job with huge powers to track down the money flow in the poll campaigns. To begin with, he has already made a trip to Bihar that goes to polls next month and will be touring all the districts of Tamil Nadu and West Bengal due for the Assembly polls next year to brief the district officials on his requirements.

An 8- page circular is also being issued to all state election offices to keep a tab on expenditures incurred by the candidates in elections, with Dash at the helm of affairs.

He will be monitoring huge withdrawals of cash from banks and transfer of funds from one bank to another for routing to the election campaigns. Instructions are being issued to all banks by the Election Commission to keep a separate record of withdrawals above Rs 10 lakhs.

The idea to have a separate senior officer for keeping a tab on the poll expenditure of candidates and political parties came to Chief Election Commissioner S Quraishi on realization that the Election Commission has no foolproof mechanism to scrutinize affidavits of assets and returns of expenditure filed by the candidates. In the Bihar Assembly elections, Dash will be assisted by 150 expenditure observers, who have been appointed in addition to the same number of the general observers.

These expenditure observers have been given powers to visit the bank branches to study huge withdrawals usually made for use in the poll campaign. Sources said that the DG Expenditure will examine affidavits of candidates declaring their income and cross- check them with the annual income tax returns filed with the Income Tax Department.

He has also powers to seek assistance of the security and investigating agencies to track the money flow into the elections.