The Centre has given several hints that the next big wave of financial reforms after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) roll out would be in the area of political funding. Even though the bonds give donors anonymity while they make digital political contributions, they do not offer tax exemptions. There remains an alternative route to make donations along with tax-breaks, through electoral trusts, entities that can collect funds without disclosing source of funding, and distribute them to political parties. The donors could be incentivised to make digital donations through tax rebates and cash transaction surcharges. The Centre, which prides itself on making structural changes such as demonetisation and the GST rollout, would have to make deep-rooted technology-aided reforms to bring in political funding transparency.

Source: Hindustan Times July 12, 2017 05:03 UTC