Eleven political parties together collected Rs 2,777.97 crore comprising donations above Rs 20,000 between 2014-15 and 2018-19 with the ruling BJP accounting for 80.12% of the total donations by collecting Rs 2225.66 crore, followed by its rival Congress at 13.64% with Rs 379.02 crore.
According to the Association for Democratic Rights (ADR), only three of the 11 mainstream parties analysed had submitted their reports of donations to the Election Commission (EC) within the stipulated time frame.
The income for all political parties for the 11-year period was estimated at Rs 11,367.34 crore, including national and regional outfits at Rs 9,278.30 crore and Rs 2,089.04 crore, respectively. The ADR report showed that Rs 1,405.19 crore was declared by six national parties through known sources of donation worth above Rs 20,000.
There were donations worth Rs 325.23 crore that were deposited without any Permanent Account Number (PAN), which is issued by the Income Tax (I-T) Department. The BJP accounted for the lion’s share of unaccounted source of donations at Rs 237.22 crore, or 72.94%, followed by the Congress (Rs 81.87 crore) and the Communist Party of India (CPI) (Rs 5.04-crore). Besides, Rs 15.75 crore was donated to the parties via incorrect PAN numbers.