Only 10% from donations above Rs 20,000 of which Rs 11.14 crores from donors with no names and address
BeyondHeadlines News Desk
Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) analysed the IT returns and donations reports of the 6 National Parties submitted for the Financial Year 2012-13. Political parties are required to submit details of donations received above Rs 20,000 from all over India, to the Election Commission, annually. Parties provide details of the name, address, PAN, mode of payment and amount contributed by each donor who has made donation above Rs 20,000.
- This report, apart from analysing the total income and expenditure, analyses the contributions made by corporates and individuals above Rs 20,000 during FY 2012-13 to National Parties
- The report looks into those donations where details of donors were not declared by the parties
- It is seen 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 declared that the party received no donations above Rs 20,000 during FY 2012-13 as it had declared since FY 2004-05
Executive Summary
I. Total income of political parties from all over India
- The total income and expenditure of political parties is calculated from their IT returns filed with the Income Tax Department annually
- The total income of National Parties for FY 2012-13 was Rs. 991.20 crores. INC declared the highest total income of Rs. 425.69 crores, followed by BJP with Rs. 324.16 crores and BSP with a declared total income of Rs. 87.63 crores. NCP a declared total income of Rs. 26.56 crores, CPI, Rs. 1.07 crores and CPM declared a total income of Rs. 126.09 crores for FY 2012-13.
II. Number of donors contributing above Rs. 20,000 to political parties from all over India (FY 2012-13)
- The total amount of donations received above Rs 20,000 by National Political parties during FY 2012-13 is calculated from the donations report submitted to the Election Commission annually
- The total donations above Rs 20,000 declared was Rs. 99.14 crores, from 3777 donors.
III. Top corporate donors to National Parties
- INC: Torrent Power Ltd donated the maximum amount (Rs 3.50 crores) followed by Torrent Pharmaceuticals (Rs 1.50 crores) and Hyderabad Industries Ltd (HIL) (Rs 50 lakhs).
- BJP: General Electoral Trust of the Aditya Birla Group donated the maximum amount (Rs 7.50 crores) followed by Lodha Dwellers Pvt Ltd (Rs 6.99 crores) and Torrent Power (Rs 6.57 crores).
- CPI and CPM: CPI received a total of Rs 4.21 lakhs from organizations such as Bhartiya Khet Mazdoor Union and while CPM received a total of Rs 1.43 crores from 29 corporate/ business houses.
IV. Undeclared Donors
- The name and address of a total of 43 donors who contributed Rs 29 lakhs to the National Parties is undeclared in the statements submitted by the parties. Thus, these donations above Rs 20,000 cannot be traced to any individual, organization or a trust.
- Similarly, the addresses of a total of 655 donors contributing Rs 10.84 crores to the National Parties have been left undeclared in the statements submitted by the parties.
V. Sector-wise donations
- Corporate/ business sector tops the list of contributions with 72% or Rs 70.97 crores to the National Parties followed by individual donations with 17% or Rs 17.01 crores
- It is to be noted that 11% or Rs 11.14 crores was donated by those donors who cannot be traced by name or address
VI. Donors who have not declared details of PAN
- A total of 2371 out of 3775 donors (or 63%) contributing Rs 37.64 crores to the National Parties have not declared their PAN details in the contribution form.
· BJP has listed the maximum number of donors (1670) who have not declared their PAN while contributing a maximum of Rs 25.99 crores.
Recommendations of ADR
The Supreme Court gave a judgment on September 13, 2013 declaring that no part of a candidate’s affidavit should be left blank. Similarly, no part of the Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000 should be blank.
Full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI. Some countries where this is done include Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan. In none of these countries is it possible for 75% of the source of funds to be unknown, but at present it is so in India.
Details of donors who make donations to the Electoral Trusts should be available in the public domain for increasing transparency in funding of political parties.
Those parties not following the ICAI guidelines for auditing of reports should be scrutinized by the IT department.
