As per the direction 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 and as per the detail provided, some stunning revelations came to the fore.
As per the data compiled by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), General Electoral Trust of the Aditya Birla Group toped the list of donor and 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.
As per norms, Political parties aren’t permitted to accept contributions from foreign companies or companies controlled in India by foreign companies but in a eye opening revelations a total of Rs 29.26 crores was accepted by INC and BJP together between FY 2003-04 and 2011-12. Electoral Trusts were also figured in the donor lists and donated a total of Rs 105.86 crores by 6 Electoral Trusts to the national parties.
Executive Summary
Corporate 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.
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 by 340 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 by Torrent 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 by Torrent 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)
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. However, 58 donors, who have donated Rs 1.02 crores to the national parties, have not been declared by the national parties.
