The idea of creating a basket fund for political donations deserves consideration. Industries will contribute a little bit to such a basket fund

Private sector representatives have urged the government to introduce a legal system to properly channelize donation collections during elections.

This suggestion is worth considering because so far political donations during elections are unaccounted for, and the political parties do no account for them as well. This goes against the principle of public accountability of political parties.

On the part of business people, permission to show political donations in their books of accounts will also promote transparency and accountability. Such donations are made in a clandestine manner so that who gives how much to what political party remains unknown to the government or its various agencies concerned as well as other stakeholders.

In order to make the financial side of politics transparent, the revenues and expenditures of political parties should be known to the public along with their sources of revenues.

Political parties of all hues have been raising donations from business houses and when such deals remain dark, how can transparency and accountability gain?

According to the Income Tax Act of Nepal, industries should not donate more than Rs.100,000 in a year but many industries have given donations amounting to many times that amount to political parties and their local level candidates in connection with the ongoing election.

When all the donations are totaled, the amount is far in excess of this legal limit. The industries cannot show this in their books of accounts. It is sound advice from business people that the government should legally channelise political donations and the donors should be allowed to make the payment by cheque.

Rather, industries should be required to pay through banks. Such a legal provision would enable industries to keep track of their expenditures and to show them in their annual balance sheets. The idea of creating a basket fund for political donations also deserves consideration.

Industries will contribute a certain per cent of their income to such a basket fund out of which donations are to be provided to political parties on the basis of the votes they secure in elections.

Unaccounted-for donations have contributed to corruption among political parties. But donations from business houses should be kept within reasonable limits. Big business houses ultimately profit from such donations as they know how to get favours when political parties are in government or even in the opposition, and such favours may not agree with the interests of the public and the nation.

Businesses may be given tax exemption from such donations to a certain extent. Legal provisions should also be made to provide government funds to political parties on the basis of the votes they have won.

These measures may reduce the obligation of political parties to particular business houses and thus the risk of undesirable favours bestowed on them by government leaders. There should be limits to this too. Ways should be found to keep election expenditures from rising, as wasteful expenditures should be cut.

Indeed, the government cannot meet all of the expenditures of the political parties out of the taxpayers’ money. But taking initiatives on reforms on political funding should not be delayed.

Drive slow

The management of speed of vehicles on the roads could help avert many tragic traffic accidents. In this regard, the fourth United Nations Global Road Safety Week kicked off on Monday.

The stakeholders marked the occasion by holding a rally in Maitighar in the inaugural programme. This programme will be observed till May 14 throughout the country. This would be done to raise awareness about the risks posed to pedestrians and vehicle driver alike when the vehicles travel at high speed.

The slogan for this year’s campaign is to Save Lives – Slow Down. The campaign has the objective to warn about the dangers of speeding and to deal with it in order to save valuable lives from traffic accidents. The goal is to reduce road accident deaths and injuries by 50 per cent by 2020.

This is possible if all who use the roads abide by the provision of not speeding. Thus, through observation of this programme it is possible to make the campaign a success.

By addressing the speed issues steps should be taken against those who drive at high speed, one of the major causes for road accidents, and this provision should be strictly enforced.