Awami League’s spending in 2014 dropped due to ‘BNP’s agitation’

The governing Awami League earned Tk 90 million last year and spent about Tk 35 million, leaving it with a surplus of Tk 45 million.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 31 August 2015, 02:33 PM
Updated : 31 August 2015, 02:38 PM

The figures were in the party’s annual financial report submitted to the Election Commission on Monday.

Its Office Secretary Abdus Sobhan Golap has, however, blamed the BNP-led alliance’s violent agitations that forced the cancellation of many programmes for a drop in expenditure.

Registered political parties are required by law to file their annual financial reports to the EC ever since registration was made mandatory in 2008.

The BNP, which lost the 2008 elections to the Awami League and boycotted the last one, has shown a Tk 35.3 million spending against an income of Tk 28.75 million.

It has been showing a deficit for the last two years.

In 2013, the Awami League’s income was 16 times that of the BNP.

“Our income has remained unchanged,” said Golap, who led a delegation to submit the financial report.

“However, we were unable to organise several programmes due to the BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition’s agitations lasting over 92 days. It led to a cut in spending,” he added.

But the BNP-led alliance agitated for three months from January this year where the financial report dealt with earning and spending of 2014.

Golap said they had provided financial assistance to many victims of violence orchestrated by the BNP-Jamaat coalition.

He, however, declined to give the income-expenditure details due to ‘legal constraints’.

The Jatiya Party, which emerged as the main opposition party in the last elections, earned Tk 9.5 million last year but spent Tk 14.9 million.

It covered the deficit with a Tk 5.6 million surplus it had carried over from 2013.

The EC extended the deadline for the submission of financial reports by a month to Aug 31 at the request of 10 parties, including the Awami League and the BNP.