Six National Parties of India have received a whopping sum of Rs 622.38 crore as donation from various donars. Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), have analyzed the donations received by the National Political Parties, above Rs 20,000, during the Financial Year 2014-15, as submitted by these parties to the Election Commission of India (ECI). The National Parties include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI) and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M). BJP stood first among the parties in getting donation. The party’s donations recorded a 156 per cent hike the after Narendra Modi came to power. Of the total donations received by the parties, more than half (Rs 437.35 crore) has gone to BJP.
Summary of the Analysis:
I. Donations above Rs 20,000 to the Parties from all over India
a. The total amount of donations above Rs 20,000 received by National Political Parties during FY 2014-15 is calculated from the donations report submitted to the Election Commission annually.
b. The total amount of donations above Rs 20,000 declared by the National Parties was Rs. 622.38 crores, from 1695 donations.
c. With 1234 donations from individuals and corporates, BJP tops the list and has declared a total of Rs 437.35 crores as received via voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000. The donations declared by BJP is more than twice the aggregate declared by the INC, NCP, CPI and CPM for the same period.
d. BSP declared that the party did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000 during FY 2014-15, as it has been declaring for the past 10 years
Comparison of donations in 2013-14 and FY 2014-15
a. The total donations of the National Parties during FY 2014-15 increased by Rs 374.61 crores, an increase of 151%,from the previous financial year, 2013-14.
b. NCP declared the highest increase of 177%, from Rs 14.02 crores in FY 2013-14 to Rs 38.82 crores in FY 2014-15 while donations to BJP increased from Rs 170.86 crores during FY 2013-14 to Rs 437.35 crores during FY 2014-15 (156% increase).
Incomplete disclosure of information in the donations report
a. Rs 83.915 lakhs was declared as received by BJP from 20 such donors whose PAN details, Address and Mode of contribution (together) were unavailable. Thus, only names of such donors and the contributed amount was declared by the party. 73% of such funds came from corporates and 27% from individual donors.
b. In the report submitted by INC, the column for declaring mode of contribution does not contain the Cheque/DD numbers, for 192 donations amounting to Rs 138.98 crore. This forms 98% of total donations above Rs 20,000 to the party. Without the complete cheque/DD details, it would be a time consuming process to link the donors against their donations and hence trace the money trail.
c. INC received a total of Rs 55.88 lakhs as donations by cash but PAN details of 11 such donors are unavailable.Similarly, CPI collected a total of Rs 4.49 lakhs as donations by cash from 8 donors whose PAN details are unavailable.
d. CPI has not provided the names and PAN number of 27 state secretaries of the party though their contributions amount to Rs 76.81 lakhs.
State-wise donations to National Parties
a. Segregation of donations according to State was made by ADR/NEW based on the address provided by the parties in their donations report to the ECI.
b. A total of Rs 260.01 crores was donated to the National Parties from Maharashtra by both corporate and individuals together, followed by Rs 24.76 crores from Gujarat and Rs 15.34 crores from Delhi.
c. A total of Rs 305.97 crores, (49% of total donations received by the National parties, FY 2014-15), could not be attributed to any State/ Union Territory due to incomplete information provided by the parties.
Recommendations of ADR
a. There is ambiguity in details of donations declared by the National Parties. In the report submitted by INC, the column for declaring mode of contribution does not contain the Cheque/DD numbers, for 192 donations amounting to Rs 138.98 crores. This forms 98% of total donations above Rs 20,000 to the party. Without the complete cheque/DD details, it would be a time consuming process to link the donors against their donations and hence trace the money trail.
b. Rs 83.915 lakhs was declared as received by BJP from 20 such donors whose PAN details, Address and Mode of contribution (together) were unavailable. Thus, only names of such donors and the contributed amount was declared by the party. 73% of such funds came from corporates and 27% from individual donors. Such blatant disregard for rules by the political parties should be curbed and donations with incomplete details should not be entitled to the benefit of 100% tax exemptions of the defaulting parties.
The report is prepared by Maj Gen Anil Verma (Retd.) Head, National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms, Prof Jagdeep Chhokar,IIM Ahmedabad (Retd) Founder Member National Election Watch, Association for Democratic Reforms and Prof Trilochan Sastry, IIM Bangalore, Founder Member,National Election Watch, Association for Democratic Reforms.
