Political parties' funding and finances: India
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Funding by the bigger corporates
Biggest corporate donors: 2004-2012
Birla group largest donor to BJP's poll fund
The Times of India Himanshi Dhawan,TNN | Jun 26, 2014
NEW DELHI: Industrialist Aditya Birla, who came under investigation by the CBI in the coal allocation case, was the largest contributor to BJP donating Rs 7.50 crore through his General Electoral Trust in 2012-2013. The Trust had donated Rs 26.6 crore to the BJP between 2004-2005 and 2011-2012.
Incidentally, Birla's name came up for investigation during the last months of the UPA regime. The Birla group did not make any contribution to Congres in the last financial year after being its top donor with a donation of Rs 36.4 crore between 2004-2005 and 2011-2012.
The Tata group — that was the fourth largest contributor for Congres donating Rs 10 crore and fifth for BJP with a contribution of Rs 6.9 crore between 2004-2012-- did not figure in the top 20 contributors for either party last year. Vedanta group that operates the Public and Political Awareness Trust contributed Rs 10 crore to Congres between 2004-2012 but shied away from donations to the party in 2012-2013. It gave Rs 6.9 crore to BJP in the last 7 years and Rs 5 crore in this fiscal year.
Mumbai-based Lodha Dwellers Pvt ltd and Ahmedabad-based Torrent Power were the other top donors to the saffron party during 2012-2013 according to advocacy group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) that analyzed income and expenditure statements submitted by six national political parties for 2012-2013 to the Election Commission.
While Lodha Dwellers contributed Rs 6.99 crore, Torrent Power gave Rs 6.57 crore to the BJP. Torrent Power continued its trend of donating to both party coffers as it had done in previous years. It was only slightly less generous to Congres donating Rs 3.50 crore followed by Torrent Pharmaceuticals (Rs 1.50 crore) and Hyderabad Industries who donated Rs 50 lakh. Torrent had contributed Rs 11.9 crore to Congres and Rs 13 crore to BJP in fiscal 2004-2005 and 2011-2012.
Six national political parties including Congres, BJP, BSP, NCP, CPI and CPM earned a total income of Rs 991.20 crore in financial year 2012-2013 of which only 10% were above Rs 20,000.
Political parties are required to submit details of donations received above Rs 20,000 from all over India, to the Election Commission, annually. Parties must provide details of the name, address, PAN, mode of payment and amount contributed by each donor who has made donation above Rs 20,000. ADR report said that details of 703 donors were not declared in the donations statement, who had contributed a total of Rs 11.14 crores to the national parties. BSP, for instance, declared that the party received no donations above Rs 20,000 last year as it had declared since 2004-05.
Congres received the highest contribution with Rs 425.69 crore followed by BJP with Rs 324.16 crore. CPM declared a total income of Rs 126.09 crore followed by BSP (Rs 87.63 crore). NCP said their income last year was Rs 25.56 crore followed by CPI's Rs 1.07 crore.
Corporate sector topped the list of contributions with 72% or Rs 70.97 crore to the national parties followed by individual donations with 17% or Rs 17.01 crore.
While Congres' earnings came from sale of coupons (73%) of its total income, BJP's income was from voluntary contributions which constituted 83%.
2012-13: big donors prefer BJP over Congres
Did big donors pick BJP over Congres?
In 2012-13, Saffron Party Collected 83Cr, Its Rival 11Cr, Show Papers Filed With EC
Pradeep Thakur TNN The Times of India
New Delhi: The BJP’s coffers had started swelling much before support for its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi turned into a wave. The party collected a record Rs 82.82 crore from declared donors in 2012-13, leaving the ruling Congres trailing in its wake with just Rs 11.42 crore in the same period.
This was revealed in the latest contribution reports submitted by parties to the Election Commission (EC) in which they have to declare donations in excess of Rs 20,000. While BJP’s contribution report runs into 188 pages, and was among the last few to be filed with the EC on March 26, the Congres report ends in 49 pages.
These contributions, however, are just a fraction of what the parties actually receive. Up to 90% of the funds of these parties come through sale of coupons and other sources where donors’ names are not disclosed. BSP has claimed year after year that all its donations are less than Rs 20,000 each. Like BSP, other parties such as Trinamool Congres and AIADMK have said they did not receive any contribution above Rs 20,000.
NCP and CPM are among those yet to submit their contribution reports, sources said. CPI declared Rs 37 lakh in contributions and named its donors.
The income of parties for 2012-13 will be known only after a year when they file their I-T returns. As of now, the 2012-13 contribution reports are the latest available data on parties’ income.
A request is pending with the Central Board of Direct Taxes to investigate the accounts of all major parties which have together earned more than Rs 4,900 crore between 2004-05 and 2011-12. The Association for Democratic Reforms, which has analysed parties’ income through their I-T returns, has petitioned CBDT to probe these anonymous donors.
The biggest beneficiary in the eight years has been Congres, having collected more than Rs 2,300 crore, followed by BJP with a total income of Rs 1,300 crore. BSP, which claims all its donors are anonymous, collected Rs 497 crore. CPM collected Rs 521 crore, NCP Rs 201 crore and CPI Rs 10 crore.
2013-14
Dec 25 2014
90% of political fundings in 2013-14 came from India Inc'
Who funds political parties? Corporates do.According to an analysis by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), 90% of political funds have been contributed by corporates or business houses. Roughly about half the amount donated to political parties came from Delhi followed by Maharashtra and Gujarat. This is based on declaration of donations submitted by parties to the Election Commission. While BJP is yet to submit details of its donors for 2013-2014 to the Election Commission, three national parties -Congress, NCP and CPI-received 517% more funds than the previous year (2012-2013).
Total donations received by national parties were Rs 76.93 crore from 881 donations. Incidentally , dona tions to Congress increased from Rs 11.72 crore during FY 2012-13 to Rs 59.58 crore during FY 2013-14 (408% increase). Donations declared by BJP during 20012-2013 were more than the aggregate declared by Congress, NCP, CPI and CPM during 2013-2014.
ADR founder-trustee Jagdeep Chhokar said, “90% of donations coming from corporates show the increasing hold of the corporate sector on political parties which is somewhat disconcerting.The ruling party not submitting its donation report is not a good sign as it possibly indicates a lack of respect for integrity of institutions which is not healthy for a democracy .“
A total of Rs 45.49 crore was donated to national parties from Delhi by both corporates and individuals together followed by Rs 18.12 crore from Maharashtra and Rs 3.01 crore from Gujarat.
2013-14: contributions vs expenditure
Feb 12 2015
Pradeep Thakur
EC for probe into LS poll funding
The Election Commission (EC) is in the process of sending donation details of all political parties to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) for a probe by the income tax authorities to ascertain whether entities making contributions were genuine. What has rattled the poll watchdog is the huge expenditure made by some of the leading parties during the Lok Sabha elections in March-May last year, disproportionate to their declared sources of income.
BJP, which claimed it received Rs 363 crore in 2013-14 (up to March 31), has shown an expenditure of Rs 714 crore during the LS polls. The donations declared by parties are those in excess of Rs 20,000 each. Except for DMK, none has declared total contributions received in the last fiscal. DMK has revealed that it got Rs 80 crore, but its individual donations in excess of Rs 20,000 were to the tune of Rs 77 lakh only . Congress spent more than Rs 516 crore during the parliamentary polls, according to the EC. However, information submitted to the Commission show total contribution declared by the party at Rs 59 crore. The remaining list of donors has not been made available.
Similar was the case with NCP which received Rs 15 crore in contributions for which it has furnished details to the Commission.
But its overall expenditure during the Lok Sabha polls was Rs 51 crore.
Mayawati-led BSP has said it did not receive a single contribution which was above Rs 20,000. But the party’s expenditure was Rs 30 crore during the LS polls. The Aam Admi Party, which drew a blank in Delhi during the parliamentary polls, has so far not submitted any expenditure details.
It is mandatory for political parties to report all their contributions received in a financial year before the date of filing of their Income Tax returns. In 2013-14, the due date was extended to November but the BJP was the last to submit its report on December 20.
Delaying submission of contribution reports beyond the due date can lead to parties facing penal action such as withdrawal of their I-T exemption and payment of tax on such contributions.
Even with the partial disclosure of contribution, leading national parties seem to have made a windfall in the LS election year.
The Congress received Rs 12 crore in disclosed contributions in 2012-13 which increased to over Rs 59 crore in 2013-14. The BJP received Rs 83 crore which increased to Rs 363 crore during the same period.
