Political parties got 90 % donations from corporates in 2013-14: ADR report

New Delhi: Corporates and business houses provided 90% donations to national political parties in 2013-14 while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was the only party not to furnish details of financial assistance to the Election Commission, advocacy group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said on Wednesday.

In a report, the ADR said total donations received by Congress, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Communist Party of India (CPI) during 2013-14 rose by ₹ 62.69 crore which is an increase of whopping 517% from the previous financial year. The ADR said donations to Congress rose from ₹ 11.72 crore in 2012-13 to ₹ 59.58 crore in 2013-14 which is an increase of 408%.

In 2012-13, donations declared by BJP was more than the aggregate declared by Congress, NCP, CPI and Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) during 2013-14. BJP had declared a total of ₹ 83.19 crore received above ₹ 20,000 during 2012-13.

Bharti Group’s Satya Electoral Trust donated the maximum amount of ₹ 36.5 crore to Congress followed by A V Patil Foundation which donated ₹ 5 crore and Bharat Forge Ltd’s ₹ 2.50 crore, said the ADR report prepared on the basis of donation details provided by the political parties. None of these three groups donated to Congress during 2012-13.

“90% of the donations being from corporates shows 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,” said Jagdeep Chhokar, founder-trustee of ADR.

Political parties are required to submit report on receiving contributions for furnishing a return of their income for 2013-14 which was 31 October. BJP is the only national party which is yet to submit its donations report to the Election Commission, the ADR said.

The total amount of donations above ₹ 20,000 declared by the national parties was ₹ 76.93 crore, from 881 donations and on an average, Congress received ₹ 11.70 lakh per donor, NCP: ₹ 1 crore, CPI: ₹ 3.23 lakh and CPI-M: ₹ 4.03 lakh.

The report said donations to CPI-M reduced from ₹ 3.81 crore during 2012-13 to 2.097 crore during 2013-14. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) declared that it did not receive any donations above 20,000 during 2013-14, as it has declared in the past. PTI