Despite note ban, dirty cash flows for elections

NEW DELHI: Demonetisation appears to have failed to arrest cash flow in the ongoing assembly polls with cash seizures witnessing a massive jump across UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab and Goa.

Though UP is yet to see four more phases of polling, cash seizures in the state+stood at Rs 109.79 crore on February 18, three times the amount reported in the 2012 assembly polls.

Cash seizures in Punjab, which is witnessing a three-cornered fight among Congress, SAD-BJP and Aam Aadmi Party, were five times the amount reported in 2012. Besides seizure of Rs 58.02 crore in cash (up from Rs 11.51 crore in 2012), 12.43 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 13.36 crore (up from Rs 2.59 crore) and 2,598 kg of drugs worth Rs 18.26 crore were seized in the run-up to the February 4 poll. In 2012, 53kg of drugs worth Rs 54 crore was seized.

The 2012 figures in EC data sourced by TOI are of total cash seizures made in raids by police and surveillance teams during the polls, as is the case in 2017.

In instances where the origin of the seized money is not satisfactorily explained, the amount is handed over to IT authorities and this means that, as compared to five years ago, the tax department will have more cases to handle this year.

Uttarakhand, where polling was held in a single phase on February 15, reported Rs 3.38 crore of cash seizures, up from Rs 1.30 crore in the 2012 assembly poll. The amount of liquor seized went up from 15,151 litres (worth Rs 15.15 lakh) to 1.01 lakh litres worth Rs 3.10 crore.

The story in Goa was no different. Cash seizures totalled Rs 2.24 crore, a 273% rise over Rs 0.60 crore seized in the run-up to the 2012 polls in the state. Liquor seizures stood at 76,299 litres this time, valued at around Rs 1.07 crore.

"The massive and unprecedented cash seizures from the poll-bound states prove that demonetisation has had no effect on use of money power in elections," said a senior EC official. "Even though EC, concerned that the RBI limit on cash withdrawals from banks and ATMs would handicap the candidates in spending up to the prescribed poll expenditure limit, pushed the RBI to relax these restrictions, the high cash seizures show that the withdrawal caps were hardly a deterrent for candidates or political parties."

Uttar Pradesh, where demonetisation and the resulting cash crunch are a key plank of non-BJP parties+ , has reported little impact on movement of black money/unaccounted cash during the ongoing poll.