Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi has said that legal ban on paid news and adding party and third party expenses in the constituency to the candidates account, may bring down the election cost at constituency level. <br/><br/>Delivering the inaugural address at the two day Regional Conference on the use of money in politics and its effect on People's Representation in New Delhi today, Mr Zaidi said, the legal ban should be followed by strong public disclosure and penalties. <br/><br/>He said, candidates are spending huge amounts under the barb of paid news. He said, to curb the problem, Election Commission has proposed a legislative sanction to make paid news an offence and many political parties and media houses have agreed on it. <br/><br/>He said, at candidate level, law imposes celling on expenditure but there is no law on how much fund they can raise. He said, data with commission says that candidates are under reporting expenses within prescribed ceiling. <br/><br/>He said, out of 535 winners in the last Parliamentary elections, expenses of majority of winners reported to commission were in the range of 40 per cent to 80 per cent only. He said, in reality they spend several times their legal limit.