The amount of funds raised by political bodies in 2001 fell 3.2 percent from the previous year to 322.6 billion yen, according to Kyodo News calculations based on reports by the organizations, including political parties.

Local political organizations, whose activities are limited to a single prefecture, had submitted the reports on the tax-free political funds to prefectural election administration committees as of Friday.

Funds raised by local chapters of the main political parties and by regional political organizations in all 47 prefectures in 2001 came to 166.7 billion yen, down 5.6 percent from the previous year.