ECI Election Commission Return Preparer Guidelines

Organisation : Election Commission Of India
Facility : Election Commission Return Preparer Guidelines
Applicable For : Candidates & Political Parties
Download Guidelines : https://www.electionin.in/uploads/5691-ReturnPreparer.pdf
Website : http://eci.nic.in/eci/eci.html

Election Commission Return Preparer Guidelines

Election Commission Return Preparer Guidelines The Election Commission has launched “Election Commission Return Preparer” (ECRP) Scheme for rendering assistance to the candidates and political parties in on-line filing of their statements of returns

Related : ECI Political Party Registration : www.electionin.in/4598.html

Definition :
a. “Election Commission Return Preparer” (ECRP) means any Certified Tax Return preparer who has been issued a “Election Commission Return Preparer Certificate” and a “unique identification number” under this Scheme by the Partner Organization in accordance with the provisions of these Guidelines”.

b. “Partner Organization” means an organization or agency selected by the Election Commission of India and with whom an agreement has been entered into by the Commission authorising it to act as Partner Organization under these ECRP Guidelines

Enrollment, Training and Certification

** ECI or the CEO of a state may select a partner organisation.
** The Partner Organisation shall be in charge of training and certification of Election Commission Return Preparers
** The Partner Organisation shall be paid training fees at the rate of Rs 1800/- per ECRP for two days training including training material and hands on practical training.

** The training programme shall be conducted under the guidance of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of each state and all payments regarding training to partner organisation shall be made from the office of the CEO of the state

** The training of the selected Master Trainers of the Partner Organisation shall be imparted by the Commission in collaboration with IIIDEM.
** After completion of the Training, the successful participants shall be given a certificate by the CEO, and shall be enrolled as ECRP for on-line filing of Statements/Reports.
** The partner organization shall also assess the performance of ECRPs and may recommend field for deletion of the name as ECRP, if his services are not satisfactory.

Scope of Work

The Election Commission Return Preparer shall assist the candidates and Political parties in on-line filing of the Expenditure related Statements and affidavits relating to elections, in the software applications developed by the Commission.

The software application for online filing is required to be done in the following areas.
For Candidates :
(a) Online filing of affidavits of Assets of liability and criminal cases (Form 26) by the candidate.
(b) Online filing of Election Expenditures statements by the candidate as per format prescribed by the Commission.
(c) Such other statements/reports by candidates as required by the Commission.

For Political Parties :
(a) Online filing of Election Expenditure statements by the political parties within 75 days of completion of Assembly Election or 90 days of completion of Lok Sabha Election.
(b) Online filing of contribution reports (Form 24A) by the political parties, before filing the income Tax Returns.
(C) Such other reports statements by the parties as required by the Commission.

Fees to Return Preparers

(a) The ECRP shall be reimbursed a fee at a rate of Rs. 1200/- per return for online filing of the statements of a candidate or a Political Party.

(b) In candidate’s election expenditure statements normally the data entry is required in five (5) pages, in Schedule 1 to 9, besides other mandatory pages. If the data entry is required in more than five pages, then additional fee of Rs 150/- per page will be paid, in addition to the fixed amount of Rs 1200/-.

(c) In case of candidate’s affidavits of assets and liability, normally data entry is required in nine (9) pages, both for assets of liability, for court cases and education qualification. If the data entry is required in more than 9 pages in the above, then additional amount of Rs 150/- per extra page will be paid in addition to the fixed amount of Rs 200/-

Payment Schedule

(a) The ECRP shall raise the bill in the name of DEO or CEO of the state after on-line filing of statements/reports.
(b) The fee is to be paid to ERCP, by the office of the CEO or the DEO in rates specified above after successful completion of the on-line filing of each statements report.