By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
New Delhi: Corportes and business houses made 87% of the total donations to national parties between FY 2004-05 and 2011-12. Out of Rs 435.87 crores collected by national parties between FY 2004-05 and 2011-12, Rs 378.89 crores was donated by corporates and business houses.
Political parties are required to submit details of donors who have made donations above Rs 20,000 in a financial year (between 1st April and 31st March) to the Election Commission of India, every year. Parties provide details of the name, address, PAN, mode of payment and amount contributed by each donor who has made donation above Rs 20,000.
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), in its earlier report dated 13th Sept, ‘13, specified that 75% of the sources of funding of political parties is unknown.
This report analyses those contributions made by corporates or business houses who have made donations to national parties between FY 2004-05 and 2011-12, which form less than 25% of the total donations from known sources.
It is seen from the analysis that various sectors of business houses in 8 years donated a total of Rs 378.89 crores, constituting 87% of the total contribution from known sources of political parties.
Other than Indian National Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist), no other national party has submitted its donations report for the FY 2012-13. Thus, this report covers the donations received from national parties only between FY 2004-05 and 2011-12.
Although political parties are not permitted to accept contributions from foreign companies or companies controlled in India by foreign companies, but a total of Rs 29.26 crores was accepted by INC and BJP together between FY 2003-04 and 2011-12. ADR has filed a petition in the Delhi High Court to take action against the two largest national parties, INC and BJP.
A total of Rs 105.86 crores was donated by 6 Electoral Trusts to the national parties. ADR has recommended that the details of donors who make donations to the Electoral Trusts should be available in the public domain to increase transparency in funding of political parties.
Donations from corporate/ business houses:
Out of the national parties, BJP received the maximum donations of Rs 192.47 crores from 1334 donors from corporate/ business sector followed by INC receiving a total contribution of Rs 172.25 crores from 418 donors from corporate/ business sector
92% of INC’s voluntary contributions is from corporate/ business houses while 85% of BJP’s contribution is from corporate/ business houses
Number of donations made by corporate/ business sectors:
Maximum number of donations was made by the manufacturing sector (595 donations, Rs 99.71 crores) followed by340 donations (Rs 24.10 crores) from real-estate sector
Least number of donations was made by the hospitals (16 donations, Rs 14 lakhs) followed by 45 donations each by the shipping & transport (Rs 3.67 crores) and communication sectors (Rs 13.26 crores) to the national parties
Top corporate donors to national parties:
INC: General Electoral Trust of the Aditya Birla Group donated the maximum amount (Rs 36.41 crores) followed byTorrent Power Ltd. (Rs 11.85 crores) and Bharti Electoral Trust of Bharti Group (Rs 11 crores)
BJP: General Electoral Trust of the Aditya Birla Group donated the maximum amount (Rs 26.57 crores) followed byTorrent Power Ltd. (Rs 13 crores) and Asianet V Holding Pvt Ltd (Rs 10 crores)
NCP: Ambuja cement donated the maximum (Rs 1 crore) followed by Hindustan Construction Co. Ltd. (Rs 1 crore)and Infina Finance Pvt. Ltd. (Rs 1 crore)
CPI and CPM: CPI received a total of Rs 11 lakhs from13 corporate donors while CPM received a total of Rs 1.78 crores from 108 corporate/ business houses
Political parties which received maximum contributions from various sectors:
INC received maximum contributions from trusts & group of companies (Rs 70.28 crores) while BJP received maximum donation from manufacturing sector (Rs 58.18 crores) and power & oil (Rs 17.06 crores).
Maximum donations from mining, construction, export/ import sector was received by INC (Rs 23.07 crores) while maximum donations from the real estate sector was received by BJP (Rs 17.01 crores)
Donors who have not declared PAN and address:
A total of 301 donors contributing Rs 25.28 crores to the national parties have not declared either their PAN details or address in the contribution form
BJP has the listed the maximum number of donors (273) who have not declared their PAN and address while contributing a maximum of Rs 22.53 crores
Donors who have not declared their mode of payment:
Mode of payment of donations by 58 donors who have donated Rs 1.02 crores to the national parties have not been declared by the national parties