Overall, five national parties received voluntary donations of nearly Rs 921 crore in the financial year 2019-20 Over the last ten years, corporate donations to political parties have increased exponentially. The figure has now jumped to Rs 921 crore in 2019-20.
BJP biggest beneficiary of corporate donations followed by Congress, NCP, finds ADR report News9 Staff 11 April 2022 6:16 PM The Bharatiya Janata Party office. (Photo credit: TV9 Hindi) News Overall, five national parties received voluntary donations of nearly Rs 921 crore in the financial year 2019-20 Over the last ten years, corporate donations to political parties have increased exponentially. The figure has now jumped to Rs 921 crore in 2019-20. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the biggest beneficiary of corporate donations in the financial year 2019-20, according to the latest report published by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) . The saffron party has received donations to the tune of Rs 720 crore which accounts for almost 78 percent of the total donations of Rs 921 crore in 2019-20. The party has bagged the highest amount of donations for the second consecutive year. In 2018-19, it had received Rs 698 crores out of total donations of Rs 881 crore, according to the ADR data.
Overall, five national parties received voluntary donations of nearly Rs 921 crore in the financial year 2019-20. In the previous financial year (2018-19), it was approximately Rs 881 crore while in the year preceding that donations stood at Rs 573 crore, data shows. Corporate donations increased over 10 times Over the last ten years, corporate donations to political parties have increased exponentially. The growth is of over ten times when compared to the financial year 2012-13.
Donations to national parties from Corporate/Business Houses In 2012-13, the corporates donated Rs 82.4 crore to national political parties. The figure has now jumped to Rs 921 crore in 2019-20. The only year that witnessed a drop in donations was 2015-16 which was after the 15th Lok Sabha elections. The corporate donations doubled in 2014-15 compared to the previous year. A total of Rs 573 crore was donated to political parties in that year.
Donations from corporates Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has received the highest donation from corporate houses among all the five national parties in the year 2019-20, as per the report. The saffron party has received nearly Rs 720 crore which accounts for almost 78 percent of total amount of donations received from corporates. A total of 2,025 corporates have donated to the party in 2019-20.
Percentage of corporate donations to different parties. The ADR report revealed that 96 percent of the donations for Congress came from corporates while NCP received 95 percent of its donations from corporates. For BJP, 92 percent of their donations came from corporates houses. Over half (56 percent) of the donations received by All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) came from corporates while CPI has got only one-third (35 percent) of its donations from them. Sector-wise donations The sectoral distribution of the corporate donation shows that Electoral Trust is the most preferred instrument of donation used by the corporates. A total donation of Rs 397 crore came from electoral trusts in the financial year 2019-20, as per the report. This is approximately 43 percent of the total donations.
Sector-wise donors to national parties Followed by electoral trusts, manufacturing sector is the second-highest donor. Donations worth Rs 146 crore have been received from these companies. Further, mining and import-export businesses have donated at least Rs 120 crore to political parties. The real estate sector has donated about Rs 104 crore in the same year. The remaining donations of nearly Rs 153 crore came from financial and other smaller sectors like education, power, healthcare, communications, etc. Supreme Court's ruling on electoral bonds In March 2021, the Supreme Court refused to stay the sale of electoral bonds before Assembly elections in crucial states like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. The judgment by a Bench led by Chief Justice of India Sharad A Bobde said the scheme began in 2018 and continued in 2019 and 2020 without any impediments. The judgment came on an urgent application moved by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, to stay the sale scheduled between April 1 and 10. Bhushan insisted on transparency in the electoral bond processes. The NGO, also represented by advocate Neha Rathi, voiced serious apprehensions that sale of electoral bonds before Assembly elections would "further increase illegal and illicit funding of political parties through shell companies." The SC order noted that the bond scheme that was started in 2018 has been running without any impediment for the last three years. It also said that the certain safeguards have also been provided for the electoral bond trasactions and hence the court does not see any justification to issue a stay.
