new Delhi. The five national parties received a total donation of Rs 921.95 crore from all corporate/business houses during the financial year 2019-20, which is 91 per cent of the total contribution to political parties from known sources. BJP got the maximum donations. According to an analysis by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an organization that advocates transparency in electoral politics, such donations have increased by 143 per cent in the period between 2004-12 and 2019-20.
An analysis of the details submitted to the Election Commission of India revealed that donors contributed at least more than Rs 20,000 to parties in a financial year.
This time the report considered the BJP, the Indian National Congress (INC), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the All India Trinamool Congress, but not the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) did not consider the analysis of the details, as the party declared that it had not received any voluntary contribution of more than Rs 20,000 from any donor during this period or since 2004.
The ADR said that of the five national parties, the BJP received the highest donation of Rs 720,407 crore from 2,025 corporate donors, followed by the Congress with a total of Rs 133.04 crore from 154 corporate donors and the NCP with a total of Rs 57,086 crore from 36 corporate donors. .
During the financial year 2019-20, the BJP, Congress and BJP received voluntary donations of more than Rs 20,000 from corporate/business houses, which were 96 per cent, 95 per cent and 92 per cent respectively. CPI declared no income from corporate donations for the financial year 2019-20.
These national parties have received the highest corporate donations of Rs 921.95 crore in the financial year 2019-20 (during the 17th Lok Sabha elections). This was followed by Rs 881.26 crore in the financial year 2018-19 and Rs 573.18 crore in the financial year 2014-15 (during which the 16th Lok Sabha elections were held).
Corporate donations received in FY 2019-20 constitute 24.62 per cent of the total corporate donations received between FY 2012-13 and 2019-20. Although corporate donations to national parties increased by 1,024 per cent between FY 2012-13 and 2019-20, the percentage of corporate donations declined in FY 2015-16.
Prudent Electoral Trust topped the list of corporate donors. It donated 38 times to two national parties- BJP and Congress, totaling Rs 247.75 crore, out of which Rs 216.75 crore was given to BJP in FY 2019-20.
In the financial year 2019-20, B.G. Shirke Construction Technology Pvt Ltd was the top contributor to NCP.
The contribution of corporate/business houses is divided into 15 sectors/categories by the ADR and is not part of the details submitted by the parties to the Election Commission.
BJP, Congress, AITC and NCP received maximum contribution from electoral trusts during the financial year 2019-20. The ADR report said that BJP got the highest Rs 323.32 crore, followed by Congress Rs 71.00 crore, AITC Rs 2.00 crore and NCP Rs 1.50 crore.
A total of 309 donations, through which national parties received Rs 10,555 crore, do not have address details in the contribution form. Rs 13.91 crore was received from 144 donations which do not include PAN details in the contribution form, while Rs 16.19 crore of Rs 16,215 crore or 99.85 per cent of such donations were without PAN and the address details belonged to the BJP.
The recommendations stated that the incomplete contribution report should be returned by the Election Commission to the parties to mark them for giving incomplete information, as the report found that national parties collected a total of Rs 16,215 crore from 310 corporate donors. Received without PAN and address details.
ADR had submitted a similar report earlier as well. The January 2014 report specified that in the eight years between the financial years 2004-05 and 2011-12, various sectors of business houses donated a total of Rs 378.89 crore to national parties, which is higher than the total donations received from known sources to political parties. of 87 percent.