BackPolitical contributions were made through non-profit trust: Aditya Birla Group
Aditya Birla Group says political donations made through the General Electoral Trust are duly accounted for
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New Delhi: The Aditya Birla Group on Friday said it had made political contributions through a trust called General Electoral Trust and that all such contributions are “duly accounted for and reflected in the audited published accounts of the contributing companies".
“...in response to certain media reports on the Aditya Birla Group’s Trust and payments to politicians/MPs (members of Parliament), we wish to state that the Trust was set up by some of our group companies for making donations to political parties after the Companies Act was amended, permitting such contributions," the company said in a press release.
The company’s statement was in response to a report in The Indian Express newspaper on Friday which said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing alleged irregularities in the allocations of captive coal blocks, had “handed over to the Supreme Court a ‘diary’ it recovered from the offices of the Aditya Birla Group that lists an estimated 1,000 payments purportedly made to politicians and MPs of several parties by a Birla company trust over a 10-year period".
“The contributing companies, after serious deliberations and based on the best international practice in this regard, decided to create a Trust called ‘General Electoral Trust’, in 1998. Its sole purpose is of making contributions to various political parties/individuals, nominated by political parties, and to independent candidates standing for Parliamentary or state assembly elections. The Trust makes political contributions only to those political parties/candidates who are registered with the Election Commission of India. It is a non-profit organization," the company statement said.
On 15 October, the CBI had said it had filed a first information report (FIR) against Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla group, as well as Hindalco Industries Ltd, in the case on alleged irregularities in the allocations of captive coal blocks.
An FIR had also been registered against former coal secretary P.C. Parekh.
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