Election expenditure limits: how much a candidate can spend and how it is checked

Under section 77 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the candidate or election agent keeps a separate and correct account of all expenditure incurred or authorised from the date of nomination to the date the result is declared, both days included. Section 77(3) says the total must not exceed the prescribed amount. The amounts sit in rule 90 of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.

Exceeding the ceiling is not just a paperwork lapse. Incurring or authorising expenditure in breach of section 77 is a corrupt practice under section 123(6).

These are the figures in the January 2022 notification. The ECI said then that the previous ceilings were Rs 70 lakh or Rs 54 lakh for Lok Sabha and Rs 28 lakh or Rs 20 lakh for Assembly seats. Limits can be revised again, so check the latest notification before quoting them for a specific election.

The 30-day rule applies to every contesting candidate, including those who lose. The section 10A disqualification is by an order of the ECI, and the three years run from the date of that order.

According to a PIB release of 11 February 2022, the Commission monitors spending through a set of teams and tools during the campaign.

• Each candidate must open a dedicated bank account for election expenses, and payments above Rs 10,000 are to be made electronically.
• The day-to-day account register is inspected three times during the election period.
• The ECI's guidance for officers is in its Compendium of Instructions on Election Expenditure Monitoring (October 2021).

The Act sets a ceiling only on candidates. Explanation 1 to section 77 says that expenditure by a party's leaders on air or other travel to promote the party's programme is not treated as the candidate's expenditure, and neither is spending by government servants in the classes named in section 123(7) in the course of official duty. For this purpose "leaders" means up to 40 persons for a recognised party and up to 20 for other parties.

In Common Cause v. Union of India (1996) the Supreme Court held that expenditure incurred in connection with a candidate's election, to the candidate's knowledge, is presumed to have been authorised by the candidate. The candidate can rebut this by showing that a party or another body actually incurred it, and an entry in the party's books of account, kept as section 13A of the Income Tax Act requires, can by itself be enough, while a line printed on a poster saying that the party issued it may not be.

The Common Cause judgment discusses the earlier wording of Explanation 1, before it was amended in 2003. Read the current section 77 alongside it. See also how parties are funded.