New Delhi: Out of five major national political parties who received voluntary contributions of corporate and business houses, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the highest beneficiary, a report said on Tuesday.
Five national political parties received Rs 951 crore through the contributions of above Rs 20,000 out of which the BJP received Rs 698 crore, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report said.
ADR in its podcast episode on analysis of donations from corporates and business houses to national political parties for financial year 2018-19 said, "Five national parties, comprising BJP, Congress, NCP, CPM and Trinamool Congress received a total of Rs 951.66 crore via voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 out of which 93 per cent or Rs 881.26 crore was from corporates or business houses.
It further said that donations from corporates to national parties increased by 133 per cent from the period between 2004-12 to 2018-19.
"BJP received the maximum corporate donations of Rs 698.14 crore, which forms 94 per cent of the total donations to the party above Rs 20,000 in 2018-19 followed by Congress which declared a donation of Rs 127.60 crore from various corporate and business houses," it said.
The ADR pointed out that various sectors of business houses, in seven years between financial year 2012-13 and 2018-19, donated a total of Rs 2,823.21 crore or 91.62 per cent of the total contribution from known sources of political parties amounting to Rs 3,081.58 crore.
National parties have received the maximum corporate donations during 2018-19 (Rs 881.26 crore), followed by 2014-15 (Rs 573.18 crore) and 2016-17 (Rs 563.19 crore), it said.
Donations from corporates to National parties was lowest in 2015-16, where it reduced to Rs 76.94 crore, it said.
The ADR report also highlighted that between 2012-13 and 2018-19, BJP received the maximum corporate donations of Rs 2,319.54 crore, constituting 16 per cent of the total corporate donations in the seven years.
The ADR report further stated that progressive electoral trust was the top donor to three of the National parties namely BJP, Congress and Trinamool Congress in 2018-19. "The Trust donated a total of three times in one year, amounting to Rs 455.15 crore," it said.
The ADR said that prudent electoral trust was the second highest corporate donor to BJP and Congress, donating 25 times, a total amount of Rs 106.25 crore.
The contributions from corporate/ business houses have been classified into 15 sectors/categories by ADR and does not form a part of the submission made by parties to ECI. These sectors include Electoral Trusts, Real Estate, Manufacturing, Trusts & Group of companies, Power & Oil, Mining, Construction, Exports/Imports among others.
The ADR said that in 2018-19, Electoral Trust donated the maximum amount of Rs 617.65 crore followed by Manufacturing sector, contributing a total of Rs 96.88 crore and Mining, Construction, Exports/Imports sector, contributing a total of Rs 64.61 crore to the five national parties.
"BJP, Congress and Trinamool Congress received the maximum contributions from Electoral Trusts. BJP received the highest, Rs 471.785 crore, followed by Congress with Rs 98.88 crore and Trinamool Congress with Rs 42.98 crore," it said.
The ADR said that NCP received the maximum contributions worth Rs 5.65 crore from mining, construction, exports/imports companies.
It also said that Rs 20.57 crore was received from the non-segregated category, which includes companies with no details available online or those with no clarity regarding their nature of work.
The Mode of payment is either incomplete or undeclared in case for 204 donations through which National parties received a huge sum of Rs 556.49 crore, which forms 15 per cent of the total amount of donations received by corporate/business houses.
The report further highlighted that in a total of 631 donations declared by national parties, there is no information related to PAN or address or details of both PAN and address details. Such contributions amount to Rs 58.395 crore.
Donations or contributions are amounts contributed above Rs 20,000 to the political parties by individuals, companies, electoral trusts and unions/ associations. The details of donors such as Name, address, PAN number, Mode of payment and date of donation have to be shown by the political party in the 'Donations report' filed by the party to the Election Commission of India. According to the rules laid down by the Election Commission, Contribution Report containing details of the donors who donated above Rs 20,000 have to be made available with the ECI on an annual basis as prescribed under Section 29-C of the Representation of People's Act in Form 24A.