Election Commission auditing and accounting norms

Election Commission has given its nod to new auditing and accounting norms for political parties in the country. This will bring in transparency and help curb black money in the poll process.  The norms and guidelines, prepared by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), will soon be notified to the political parties by the  EC and financial enforcement agencies like the Income Tax department and the RBI. Our correspondent reports, ICAI has submitted the final guidance note on accounting and auditing of political parties to the Election Commission last month. The Commission has also approved the norms that ICAI has framed which will act as guidance for accounting and auditing of the financial records of political parties.  The new norms will bring in a generational change in the auditing and financial management of political parties and will enable them to conduct their finances in a corporate-like manner by getting their accounts audited and publishing their audited finance sheets annually.  Every political party will also have to consider March 31 as the end of financial year and consolidated financial statements be prepared incorporating the accounts of taluka, district and state-level party branch accounts.  The parties will also have to publish their financial statements within six months which will be prepared by a Chartered Accountant/CA firm affiliated to the ICAI.