BJP Gets Three Times More Political Funding Than Others: ADR Report

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) in its latest report on political funding has shown that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has amassed a disproportionate amount of funding compared to other political parties. More than 52% of BJP’s total donations came from Electoral Bonds worth Rs 5271.9751 crore.

The Indian National Congress (INC) is at the second place with bonds of Rs 952.2955 crore followed by AITC, which declared Rs 767.8876 crore.

In a press release, the ADR publicised the report in which they analysed the donations (above 20,000) received by the 31 recognised political parties (7 National and 24 Regional) in six-year period between the fiscal year 2016-17 and fiscal year 2021-22.

“This six-year time period is crucial,” stated the report. “As during this time, the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 was introduced for the purpose of electoral funding, and the Finance Act 2017 removed the previous limit of 7.5% of the company’s average three-year net profit for political donations. A company is no longer required to name the political parties to which such contributions are made. The donor’s name is also not revealed under the Electoral Bond Scheme.” 

The report also added that the amendment of several acts enabled foreign companies registered in India to contribute to political parties. 

Notably, the General Elections of 2019 took place during this period and a total of 45 state Assembly elections were held.

The report classified donations into (1) donations from anonymous Electoral Bonds (EBs), (2) direct donations from corporate houses (including electoral trusts), and (3) other donations (including donations below Rs 20,000). It highlighted several points, including the following:

·Donations worth Rs 9,188.35991 crore were received from Electoral Bonds (55.90%), Rs 4,614.53 cr were received from the corporate sector (28.07%) and Rs 2,634.74509 crore were received from other sources (16.03%).

• Electoral Bonds are the most preferred mode of donations for making contributions to national and regional political parties, amounting to Rs 9188.35991 crore. It is followed by direct corporate donations worth Rs 4614.53 crore.
   
• The total donations declared by BJP is more than three times the total donations declared by all other national parties.
   
• During the six-year period, more than 52% of BJP’s total donations came from Electoral Bonds worth Rs 5271.9751 crore, while all other national parties together received Rs 1783.9331 crore. INC declared the second highest donations from bonds at Rs 952.2955 crore (61.54% of its total donations), followed by AITC which declared Rs 767.8876 crore (93.27%).
   
• The corporate donations declared by BJP are at least three-four times more than the total corporate donations of all other national parties. In FY 2017-18, it was more than eighteen times that of all other national parties.

According to the report, since the inception of the Electoral Bond Scheme in FY 2017-18, in the case of national parties, the percentage increase in the donations from electoral bonds between FY 2017-18 and 2021-22 is 743% while for corporate donations this increase is only 48%. In the case of regional parties, the percentage increase in the donations from electoral bonds between FY 2017-18 and 2021-22 is 14026.4%, while for corporate donations, this increase is 389.55%.

The ADR ended the report with several recommendations, some of which include – no part of the Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000 should be blank; all donors who have donated a minimum of Rs 20,000 as single or multiple donations should provide their PAN details; corporates should make details of their political contributions available in the public domain through their websites for increasing transparency in political financing; and, the national and regional political parties must provide all information of their finances under the Right to Information Act. This will go a long way in strengthening political parties, elections, and democracy.