At least six national political parties received almost Rs 1000 crore in donations from business houses during the period, the civil society watchdog noted in its report titled the 'Analysis of Donations from Corporate & Business Houses to National Parties - FY 2016-17 & 2017-18'.
The six political parties in question include the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, Indian National Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party and the two main Left parties - Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Communist Party of India - along with All India Trinamool Congress.
BJP’s Rs 915.596 crore came from 1,731 corporate donors, while the Congress received its donations from 151 corporates. The NCP received Rs 7.737 crore from 23 corporate donors. CPI has the lowest share of corporate donations at 2 percent.
The Rs 1000 crore amount constitutes 93 percent of the total voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 to political parties from known sources, the ADR report said.
Between FY 2012-13 and FY 2017-18, business houses donated a total of Rs 1941.95 crore or 91.17 percent of the total contribution from known sources of political parties amounting to Rs 2129.92 crore.
During the period, donations from corporates to national parties increased by 414 percent.
Once again, BJP received the maximum corporate donations of Rs 1621.40 crore, constituting 83.49 percent of the total corporate donations in the six years.
National parties received the maximum corporate donations of Rs 573.18 crore in the FY 2014-15 during which the Lok Sabha elections were held.
Electoral Trusts were the biggest donors to the national parties, contributing a total amount of Rs 488.42 crore.
Prudent/Satya Electoral Trust was the top donor to two of the national parties, between FY 2016-17 and 2017-18. The trust donated 46 times in two years, amounting to Rs 429.42 crore.
BJP declared receiving Rs 405.52 crore in 33 donations while INC was the recipient of Rs 23.90 crore of funds in 13 donations from Prudent/Satya Electoral Trust.
