Analysis of Contribution Reports of Electoral Trusts for FY 2024-25
15 out of the 20 Electoral Trusts, registered with the CBDT, submitted their contribution details for FY 2024-25 to the ECI of which only 10 declared to have received any donations during that year. The following report of ADR analyses the details of donors of 10 Electoral Trusts and the contributions made by the Trusts to political parties during FY 2024-25.
Key Findings
10 electoral trusts which have declared receiving contributions during FY 2024-25, have received a total amount of Rs 3826.3417 cr from corporates and individuals and distributed Rs 3826.3522 cr to various political parties.
228 Corporate/Business Houses have contributed Rs 3636.819 cr to Electoral Trusts in FY 2024-25. 184 Corporate/Business Houses contributed Rs 2479.049 cr to Prudent Electoral Trust, 15 companies contributed Rs 915 cr to Progressive Electoral Trust, 9 companies contributed Rs 160 cr to New Democratic Electoral Trust, among others.
99 individuals/proprietors have contributed to Electoral Trusts in FY 2024-25. 96 individuals contributed Rs 187.5427 cr to Prudent Electoral Trust and 3 individuals contributed Rs 8 lakhs to Einzigartig Electoral Trust.
Elevated Avenue Realty LLP contributed the highest amount of Rs 500 cr among all donors to electoral trusts, followed by Tata Sons Private Limited with Rs 308.1324 cr, Tata Consultancy Services Limited with Rs 217.6216 cr, and Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Limited, which contributed Rs 175 cr to various trusts.
BJP received a total of Rs 3157.6549 cr (82.52%) from electoral trusts, maximum from Prudent Electoral Trust (Rs 2180.7119 cr) followed by Progressive Electoral Trust which donated Rs 757.6205 cr, New Democratic Electoral Trust which donated Rs 150 cr, Harmony Electoral Trust which donated Rs 30.15 cr, Triumph Electoral Trust which donated Rs 21 cr, Bhartiya Bhumi Electoral Trust which donated Rs 15 cr, Samaj Electoral Trust which donated Rs 3 cr, Jankalyan Electoral Trust which donated Rs 9.50 lakhs and Einzigartig Electoral Trust which donated Rs 7.75 lakhs.
21 parties (INC, AITC, YSR-Congress, TDP, JD(U), AAP, BJD, BRS, Bharath Dharma Jana Sena, DMK, LJP(Ram Vilas), Shivsena, Shivsena(UBT), AJSU Party, SDF, NCP(Sharadchandra Pawar), J&KNC, LJP, NCP, Maharashtra Swarajya Party and Praja Shanthi Party) collectively received a total of Rs 668.6973 cr or 17.48% of the total contributions received by parties from electoral trusts for FY 2024-25.
Manufacturing sector dominated contributions to Electoral Trusts in FY 2024–25, accounting for Rs 1,078.028 cr, which constituted 28.17% of the total donations.
Real Estate (Rs 629.17 cr; 16.44%) and Communication/IT/Telecom (Rs 446.0582 cr; 11.66%) emerged as the second and third largest contributions, respectively.
Prudent Electoral Trust donated Rs 2180.7119 cr to BJP, in contrast to Rs 723.785 cr contributed in FY 2023-24, while Progressive E.T. donated Rs 757.6205 cr of its total income to BJP in FY 2024-25.
Prudent E.T. donated Rs 216.335 cr to INC. Prudent Electoral Trust donated to 15 political parties, including all parties like BJP, INC, AITC, YSR-Congress, TDP, JD(U), AAP, BJD, BRS, Bharath Dharma Jana Sena, AJSU PARTY, SDF, LJP, NCP and Praja Shanthi Party.
Maharashtra emerged as the largest contributor state, from which electoral trusts received total donations amounting to 1,232.7293 cr. The major share of this came through the Progressive Electoral Trust (Rs 875.4324 cr) and the New Democratic Electoral Trust (Rs 160 cr).
Prudent Electoral Trust received significant contributions primarily from Telangana (Rs 358.25 cr), Haryana (Rs 218.90 cr), and Gujarat (Rs 198.50 cr).
Observations of ADR
- 5 (33.33%) of the 15 Electoral Trusts that submitted their annual reports for FY 2024-25 declared that they received nil contributions in that year. Between FY 2013-14 and 2024-25, 2 Electoral Trusts have declared that they have not received any donations since the year of their registration or whose reports are not available in public domain while one Electoral Trust has declared receiving contributions only once since registered. This raises a question on the continuation of registration of such electoral trusts that fail to fulfill their primary objective of distributing contributions received by them to the political parties concerned.
- The contribution reports for FY 2024-25 of 5 out of 20 registered electoral trusts are not available on the website of the ECI, even after three months since the deadline. These include Swadeshi Electoral Trust, AB General Electoral Trust, PD General Electoral Trust, Janta Nirvachak Electoral Trust and Independent Electoral Trust.
- During FY 2024–25, Harmony Electoral Trust, which was approved by the CBDT on January 20, 2023 for the period A.Y. 2023–24 to A.Y. 2025–26, does not appear in the Election Commission of India’s updated list of approved electoral trusts uploaded on 02-07-2024. Further, Harmony Electoral Trust received total contributions of Rs 35.55 cr from all sources, which is permissible under Rule 17CA of the Income Tax Rules, 1962. However, the Trust paid/disbursed a total of Rs 35.65 cr to political parties, which is Rs 10 lakh more than the total contributions received.
Recommendations of ADR
- Clause 8(1) of the Electoral Trust Scheme, while explaining the process for withdrawal of approval states that “The CBDT may withdraw the approval granted under this Scheme if it is satisfied that the electoral trust has ceased its activities or its activities are not genuine or are not carried out in accordance with all or any of the conditions laid down under the Scheme. Thus, the approval of the Jai Hind Electoral Trust, which has never received any contribution since its registration, should be withdrawn.
- The names of electoral trusts, currently, do not indicate the name of the company/group of companies which set up the trusts. In order to have greater transparency regarding details of corporates which fund political parties, it would be ideal to include the name of the parent company in the name of the electoral trust.
- Those electoral trusts, which have not responded to and complied with the guidelines circulated by the ECI should be heavily penalized as indicated in the notification issued by the ECI to the Trusts.
- All corporates should make details of their political contributions along with names of political parties contributed to available in public domain through their websites (in annual reports or in a dedicated page) for increasing transparency in political financing.