BJP takes the biggest piece of the political funding pie: Report

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received 74 percent share of total corporate funding - worth 950 crore -given to five political parties in four years till 2016, showed a report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).

According to the report by ADR, which works towards political transparency, national political parties received donations worth Rs 956.77 crore between FY13 and Fy16.

The parties which received funds include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI), and Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The data accessed by ADR is declared by the political parties themselves. The Election Commission mandates political parties to disclose each year the details of donors who contribute more than Rs 20,000 in a financial year.

While BJP got the maximum - a whopping Rs 705.81 crore- CPI and CPI(M) had the lowest donation amount of Rs 0.18 crore and Rs 1.89 crore respectively.

Congress, which trailed the BJP by a big margin, was second with Rs 198 crore in funding.

The role of the electoral trusts in such donations become crucial. They have emerged as major sources of political funding by corporations and act as a buffer between the funder and the receiver; this eliminates direct contact between the two sides.

Satya Electoral Trust was the highest donor to BJP, INC and NCP between FY 2013-14 and 2015-16, with BJP again topping the list. "The Trust donated a total of 35 number of times in 3 years, amounting to Rs 260.87 cr," stated the report.

Among the corporations donating to Satya Electoral Trust in FY 15 were Hero MotoCorp, Jubiliant Foodworks, GMMCO, National Engineering Industries, Orient Cement, DLF, JK Tyres and Industries, India Bulls Housing Finance, and Kalpataru Power Transmission. Bharti Group made the highest contribution among them by giving Rs 31 crore out of the Rs 141 crore the Trust collected for political funding in FY15.

The report shows that of the total four-year period, 60 percent of the corporate donations were given in FY 2014-15 - the year of Lok Sabha election wherein the BJP won.

Although in these four years BJP got a total of around 705 crore, its spending on the 2014 general election campaign alone was Rs 714 crore as per the contribution report the party submitted to the ECI.

The question of transparency remains blurred as the ADR report only shows the funding received from declared sources.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared in line with his party's anti-corruption stance, that he would take it up with all political parties to make the opaque nature of funding more transparent.

As per a 2013 Supreme Court judgement, none of the fields in the Form 24A--submitted by political parties to declare details of contributions over Rs 20,000--should be left blank.

Yet, 1933 donations worth Rs 384 crore did not have PAN details in the contribution form whereas 1546 donations worth Rs 355 crore did not have address details.

Contrary to the BJP-led government's otherwise staunch stance on transparency regarding money received by political parties, Finance Bill 2017 has introduced a new instrument called “electoral bond” which lets a donor contribute to a political party without disclosing his or her identity. The bonds are issued by the Reserve Bank of India and can be bought and deposited to a political party's account.

But the bonds have a cap of Rs 2,000, and any donations above that sum it has to be paid through other modes. In the Union budget earlier this year, the government reduced the maximum anonymous cash donation limit to political parties from one source to Rs 2,000 from earlier Rs 20,000.