[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Analysis by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) of donations received by five national political parties between financial year 2012-2013 and 2015-16 shows that irrespective of its stint in power the BJP constantly raked in the maximum moolah in voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 by corporates and trusts 

Whoever advised to ‘make hay while the sun shines’ possibly didn’t know of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s capability of earning hundreds of crores of rupees from corporate donations whether or not the party won general elections to rule the country.

An analysis of donations above Rs 20000 made to various political parties between financial year 2012-2013 and 2015-2016 shows how the BJP earned a staggering Rs 705.81 crore out of a total of Rs 1,070.68 crore donated by corporates and electoral trusts.

As much as 89 per cent – Rs 956.77 crore – of the total donations of Rs 1070.68 crore received by the five political parties whose donations receipts were analysed – came from corporates/business houses.

The analysis done by the Association of Democratic Reforms after studying filings made by political parties and electoral trusts before the Election Commission of India also highlights major anomalies in the manner in which political parties receive ‘voluntary contributions’ from big – or even non-descript – corporate houses and trusts.

The over Rs 705 crore donations received by the BJP from 2987 corporate donors is nearly three times the combined corporate donations received by the remaining four parties – the Congress, CPM, CPI and NCP – which declared the donations received by them. The Congress – which along with its allies in the UPA was in power at the Centre for at least two of four years that were analysed by ADR – received just Rs 198.16 crore from 167 such donors.

The two key Left parties – CPI and CPM – received the lowest amounts in donations, Rs 18 lakh and Rs 1.89 crore respectively while Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) received Rs 50.73 crore during the same period. No data was available for Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) as the party claimed that it did not receive any donation of above Rs 20,000 (the cap beyond which details of donations received have to be made public).

Political parties are required to submit details of donors who have made donations above Rs 20,000 in a financial year (between April 1 and March 31) to the Election Commission of India, every year. Parties provide details of the name, address, Permanent Account Number (PAN), mode of payment and amount contributed by each donor who has donated above Rs 20,000 in their submission.

The BJP, Congress, and NCP – which collectively accounted for over 80 per cent of all donations received by the five political parties – made maximum monetary gains under the “trusts and group of companies” category, which included entities with interests in mining, real estate, power, newspapers and other businesses. This category of corporate/business houses alone donated Rs 432.65 crore to political parties between 2012-13 and 2015-16, says the ADR report. While the BJP received Rs 287.69 crore, the Congress got Rs 129.16 crore, and the NCP Rs 15.78 crore. The BJP received the highest donations from all 14 sectors defined in the ADR report – the maximum coming in from real estate companies – Rs 105.20 crore followed by mining, construction, exports/imports – Rs 83.56 crore – and then the chemicals/pharmaceuticals sector – Rs 31.94 crore.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1503052619020{margin-bottom: 20px !important;border-top-width: 20px !important;padding-top: 20px !important;background-color: #a2b1bf !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]What is interesting – although predictably so – is the fact that donations received by political parties show a gradual increase as the country moved towards the Lok Sabha elections and then suddenly slumped – by over 80 per cent – once the elections were over in May 2014.

A cursory perusal of the ADR report reveals how in the financial year 2014-15, during which Lok Sabha elections were held, corporate donations constituted 60 per cent of the total money received by political parties between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16. Donations from corporates to national parties reduced by 86.58 per cent between FY 2014-15 and 2015-16. In numeric terms, the political parties received a total of Rs 82.4 crore in corporate donations in 2012-2013, which went up to Rs 224.60 crore in 2013-2014 and then surged to Rs 573.18 crore in the poll year of 2014-2015 before falling drastically to Rs 76.94 crore in the following fiscal.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Another curious take-away from the ADR report is that the parties collectively received Rs 384.04 crore in over 1900 donations which did not list the PAN details of the contributor. National parties have received Rs 355.08 crore from 1,546 donations which do not have address details in the contribution form. The ADR report says: “99 per cent of such donations without PAN and address details worth Rs 159.59 crore belong to BJP” and that “Such incomplete contribution reports must be returned to the parties by the ECI, to deter them from providing incomplete information.”

Furthermore, political parties reported receiving 262 donations worth Rs 10.48 crore from such corporate entities who have zero internet presence and even if they do, there is ambiguity about the nature of their work.

The Electoral Trusts

What is particularly noteworthy about ADR’s analysis is that it points at two Electoral Trusts – Satya Electoral Trust and General Electoral Trust – as being the largest contributors in monetary terms to the parties – mainly the BJP and Congress.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes had in 2013 made it mandatory for electoral trusts to register with it, declare their address and names of trustees, get a CIN number and annually file details of who they have received donations from during a financial year and the amounts that have been contributed towards different political parties. These trusts that could receive donations from various entities and then donate the money to political parties without having to disclose the original source of the funds; the only condition being that they had to donate 95 per cent of the total contributions received by them to political parties.

While both Satya and General Electoral Trusts donated generously to the BJP and Congress, little is known about the manner in which they operate. What arouses even more suspicion is that even though details of Satya group – which has donated Rs 193.62 crore to the BJP, Rs 57.25 crore to the Congress and Rs 10 crore to the NCP between 2013-2014 and 2015-2016 – are known, there is absolutely no information about the trustees, address or CIN Number of the General Electoral Trust.

The General Electoral Trust which was formed before the Electoral Scheme was launched by the Government in 2013, was the second highest corporate donor to BJP and INC. Between FY 2012-13 & 2015-16, it donated Rs 70.70 crore to the BJP and Rs 54.10 crore to the Congress but there is no information available with the CBDT or the EC on which companies the General Electoral Trust received this money from.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]