"Laws relating to Income-Tax, and others intended to check records of candidates will be more tough this time... But it is also a fact that there is no no political will among political parties to control election expenses," Krishnamurty said.

In an interview to Fact File programme to be telecast by Zee News tomorrow, the Election Commissioner said expenses incurred by candidates' aides would also be considered part of the candidate's expenses for assessing the overall election expenditure.

Maintaining that earlier ceiling on the poll expenditure was unrealistic, he said the Election Commission required more powers to keep a check on election expenditure, according to the TV channel press release. "People dospend more on elections but they should comply with the rules," he added.

He regretted that even though the "commission has approached Parliament for such amendments, nothing has happened so far".