National parties reported a steep decline in donations received during 2015-16, says a report compiled by National Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on the basis of returns submitted by them to the Election Commission of India.

The BJP, says the report, reported a decline from Rs 437 crore in the previous year to Rs 76 crore in 2015-16. Yet the donations received by the ruling party are three times higher than the combined donations of Congress, NCP, CPI, CPM and AITC, which together claimed to have received ₹25 crore, the lion’s share of Rs 20 crore reported by the Congress. BSP declared that the party did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000, as it has been declaring for the past 10 years.

Interestingly, 75% of the donations made to All India parties came from just three states, namely Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka. BJP has claimed to have received donations from only 330 individuals.

The total donations of the National Parties during 2015-16 decreased by Rs 528.67 crores, a decrease of 84%, from the previous financial year, 2014-15. NCP declared the highest decrease of 98%, from Rs 38.82 crores to Rs 71 lakhs, while donations to BJP decreased from Rs 437.35 crores to Rs 76.85 crores (82% decrease).

It is to be noted that BJP’s donations had increased by 156% between 2013-14 and 2014-15 while that of Congress had increased by 137% during the same period.

359 donations from corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 77.28 crores (75.75% of total donations) were made to the National Parties while 1322 individual donors donated Rs 23.41 crores (22.95% of total donations) to the parties during 2015-16.

283 donations from corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 67.99 crores were made to BJP while 330 individual donors donated Rs 8.86 crores to the party during 2015-16. Congress received a total of Rs 8.83 crores via 57 donations from corporate/business sectors and Rs 11.24 crores via 859 individual donors during 2015-16.