BJP leads parties in receiving funds, gets Rs 705 crore in donations in last four years: ADR

Delhi: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party received Rs 705 crore donation in four years, with major chunk of it coming from corporate/business houses, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reform.

An analysis of 'Donations from Corporates and Business Houses to National Parties - FY 2012-13 to 2015-16' says that "out of the five national parties, BJP received the maximum donations of Rs 705.81 crore from 2987 corporate donors followed by the Congress which received a total contribution of Rs 198.16 crore from 167 corporate donors."

The report also says that "between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16, BJP’s and Congress' voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 from corporate/business houses is 92% and 85% respectively"

On the other hand, the "CPI and CPM have the lowest share of corporate donations at 4% and 17% respectively."

The figures pertain to donations above Rs 20,000 only.

To further quote the report - " Though a national party, BSP has not been considered for analysis in this report as the party has declared that it received no voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 from any donor between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16. It is seen from the analysis that various sectors of business houses, in four years, donated a total of Rs 956.77 cr, constituting 89% of the total contribution to political parties from known sources."

Interestingly "national parties have received the maximum corporate donations in the FY 2014-15, during which Lok Sabha elections were held" and "Corporate donations received in FY 2014-15 alone forms 60% of the total corporate donations received between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16."

Plus, "Donations from corporates to National Parties reduced by 86.58% between FY 2014-15 and 2015-16."

"Despite not donating during FY 2012-13, Satya Electoral Trust was the top donor to three of the national parties, between FY 2012-13 and 2015-16. The trust donated a total of 35 number of times in three years, amounting to Rs 260.87 crore.  BJP declared receiving Rs 193.62 crore while the Congress was the recipient of Rs 57.25 crore of funds from the trust," says the report.

And the "General Electoral Trust, which was formed before the Electoral Trust Scheme was launched by the government in 2013, was the second highest corporate donor to BJP and the Congress. Between FY 2012-13 and 2015- 16, the trust donated Rs 70.7 crore and Rs 54.1 crore to the two national parties, respectively. The top donors to the CPI and CPM were ‘Associations’ or ‘Unions’. CPI received a total of Rs 14.64 lakhs from 15 different associations/ unions while CPM received a total of Rs 1.09 cr from 7 different associations."

More details reveal that "the real-estate sector was the biggest donor to the national parties during FY 2012-13, contributing a total amount of Rs 16.95 crore to the parties. BJP received the highest contribution of Rs 15.96 cr followed by the Congress with Rs 95 lakhs and CPM with Rs 4 lakhs."

"Trusts and Groups of Companies with varied interests in mining, real-estate, power, newspapers etc, donated the highest amount of Rs 419.69 crore, between FY 2013-14 to 2015-16, to the national parties. Between FY 2012-13 & 2015-16, manufacturing sector was the second highest overall contributor, contributing a total of Rs 123.67 cr to the five national parties," the report points out.