The National People’s Party (NPP) has grossly undervalued its property in Meghalaya and Manipur, the opposition Trinamool Congress (TMC) claimed today.
TMC national spokesman Saket Gokhale had a look at the NPP’s accounts (which all political parties are required to submit annually) for 2020-21 and found it unconvincing that the NPP claimed to have property assets worth only Rs 69.66 lakh. This after the party had been allotted land in Polo Hills here of 10,000 square feet. The NPP also had offices in Tura and Imphal.
Even though the NPP, and other parties, were allotted land in Shillong for their offices, it should still count as an asset on the balance sheet, Gokhale said.
According to the TMC’s calculation, the land in Polo Hills of that size alone is worth Rs 5.5 crore to Rs 10 crore.
On top of that will be the properties in Tura and Imphal. Even if the NPP does not own these other plots, Gokhale said that the rent on the expense sheet of Rs 8.28 lakh annually (Rs 69,000 per month) is unreasonably low.
“It would be a miracle of sorts if the NPP claims that the monthly rent for two large offices in Tura as well as Imphal together cost ONLY (emphasis in the original) Rs 69,000 per month. It is clear, therefore, that the NPP has hidden and blatantly lied about the value of its land assets in their audit annual financial reports submitted to the Election Commission,” Gokhale said.
In addition, the TMC claimed, the NPP has not filed its election expenditure report with the EC for the 2018 state elections even though parties are required to file this 75 days after the election.
The Meghalaya TMC will raise this issue with the Election Commission soon, Gokhale added, to seek an “urgent probe into the huge disparity” of what the accounts claim and what the ground reality appears to be.
