EC failed to curb use of ‘invisible money’ in political funding: Jaitley

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, while calling for a greater degree of transparency in political funding, said India was being funded by invisible money for 70 years and Election Commission failed to curb the use of ‘invisible money’ in it. Delivering the inaugural address at the Delhi Economics Conclave 2017 here today, Finance Minister also criticised the political parties along with the Election Commission and said that the political system should be more transparent.

He said that for 70 years, invisible funds created helplessness in economy, but his government is working on tracking invisible economy. “For 70 years, India’s democracy has completely been funded by invisible money; elected representatives, governments, political parties, Parliaments and I must say that the Election Commission completely failed in checking it,” Mr Jaitley said. He said that the need of the hour is to build political support for good economics.

Without political support it is hard to achieve the desired result. FM Said, “Sooner the concept of shell companies collapses, the better it will be for the economy and the country” Mr Jaitley said that the impact of digitisation is visible in Indirect & direct tax system.