By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, April 9: Donations declared by the National People’s Party (NPP) saw a massive 98.02% drop in the financial year 2023-24, according to a fresh report published by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), on Monday. The party’s disclosed donations plummeted from Rs 7.479 crore in FY 2022-23 to just Rs 0.148 crore in FY 2023-24, a difference of Rs 7.331 crore.
The ADR report, which analyses contributions above Rs 20,000 made to national political parties and submitted to the Election Commission of India (ECI), places the NPP among parties with minimal high-value donations.
Among the top donors to the NPP in FY24 were Manjushree Plastics (Guwahati) contributing Rs 5 lakh and Bimal Saha (Dalu) with Rs 3 lakh. Other significant donors included Mahmood A Sangma (Rs 2 lakh), Merimeker (Shillong) (Rs 1.5 lakh), and Thangwang Wangham from Itanagar (Rs 1 lakh).
However, the report also highlights a lack of transparency regarding payment details. The NPP received nine donations totaling Rs 14.80 lakh without declaring the dates of receipt. It is not alone — major national parties such as the BJP, Congress, AAP, and CPI(M) have also failed to disclose dates for numerous donations.
The BJP did not provide payment dates for 7,996 donations worth Rs 2,158.1494 crore, while the Congress skipped dates for 1,994 donations totaling Rs 281.48 crore. The AAP and CPI(M) also withheld dates for 1,671 donations (Rs 11.062 crore) and 514 donations (Rs 7.636 crore) respectively.