By Abdul Bari Masoud
New Delhi: Money is flowing like a river to ruling BJP’s coffers while other six national political parties are far way behind the BJP in terms of getting donations. This was revealed in an analysis carried out by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW). It said Wednesday out of a total Rs. 589.38 crores from 2123 donations, the BJP received a total of Rs 532.27 crores from 1194 donations. While the main opposition Congress has remained distant third receiving only Rs 41.90 cr from 599 donations.
ADR study focused on donations received by the National Political Parties, above Rs 20,000, during the Financial Year 2016-17, as submitted by the 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), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).
It was revealed that the donations declared by BJP is more than nine times the aggregate declared by INC, NCP, CPI, CPM and AITC for the same period. Furthermore, donations to BJP increased from Rs 76.85 cr during FY 2015-16 to Rs 532.27 cr during FY 2016-17 (593% increase).
According to its report, the total donations (above Rs 20,000) declared by the National Parties was Rs. 589.38 cr, from 2123 donations.
BSP declared that the party did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000 during FY 2016-17, as it has been declaring for the past 11 years.
Comparison of donations received by National Parties during FY 2015-16 and FY 2016-17 showed an increased by Rs 487.36 cr, an increase of 478%, from Rs 102.02 cr declared during the previous financial year, 2015-16. As per audit reports, the total income of National Parties for FY 2016-17 is Rs 1559.17 crores.
According to analysis, the total income of the seven National Parties from unknown sources (income specified in the IT Returns whose sources are unknown), for the FY 2016-17 is Rs 710.80 cr, which is 45.59% of the total income of the parties from all over India.
It also revealed that 708 donations to the National Parties were made by corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 563.24 cr (95.56% of total donations) while 1354 individual donors donated Rs 25.07 cr (4.25% of total donations) to the parties during FY 2016-17.
Most of 708 donations i.e 531 donations from corporate/business sectors were made to BJP (Rs 515.43 cr) while 663 individual donors donated Rs 16.82 cr to the party during FY 2016-17.
Congress fortunes showed continued decline as it received a total of Rs 36.06 cr via 98 donations from corporate/business sectors and Rs 5.84 cr via 501 individual donors during FY 2016-17.
Satya Electoral Trust donated a total of Rs 265.12 cr to BJP and INC and is one of the top 2 donors to the two parties. The Trust donated Rs 251.22 cr to BJP (94.76% of total funds received by the party) and Rs 13.90 cr to INC (5.24% of total funds received by the party).
ADR analysis observered that there is still ambiguity in details of donations declared by the National Parties for FY 2016-17. Of the 7 National Parties, 4 parties, BJP, INC, CPI and CPM had not declared PAN details of 166 donations through which the parties collected a total of Rs 2.86 cr. INC collected Rs 1.69 cr from 88 donations but failed to provide PAN details of donors.
It is said the BJP has collected Rs 1.54 cr from 26 donations without declaring Address and Mode of payments in its donations statement for FY- 2016-17.
ADR recommended that the National and Regional Parties should, ideally, lead by example by filing complete and correct statements of donations to the ECI well in time for public scrutiny so as to encourage financial transparency. It also said that political parties must provide all information on their finances under the Right to Information Act.