Between 2012-13 and 2015-16, the BJP bagged the lion's share of funding from corporate houses — Rs 705.81 crore of the total Rs 956 crore — apparently indicating that the business houses were sure about the party coming to power even as the Congress-led UPA was hit by accusations of policy paralysis and corruption.
The Congress got just Rs 198.16 crore from 167 corporate donors in this period of 3 years. Major source of funding of political parties comes from real-estate, oil, power, mining, construction, exports/imports, trusts and groups of companies and manufacturing sectors.
According to Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), between 2012-13 and 2015-16, BJP's and Congress's voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 from corporate houses is 92 per cent and 85 per cent respectively. "The NCP received Rs 50.73 crore, followed by CPM (Rs 1.89 crore) and CPI (Rs 0.18 crore). BSP was not considered for analysis in the report as the party has declared that it received no voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 from any donor between 2012-13 and 2015-16," it said.
"Between 2012-13 and 2015-16, five national parties received a total of Rs 1,070.68 crore via voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 out of which 89 per cent of Rs 956.77 crore was from corporate houses," ADR said. As per the report, a total of 1,933 donations through which national parties received Rs 384.04 crore do not have PAN details in the contribution form.
All political parties are required to submit details of donors who have made donations above Rs 20,000 in a financial year (between 1st April and 31st March) to the Election Commission, every year. Parties provide details of the name, address, pan, mode of payment and amount contributed by each donor who has made donation above Rs 20,000 in their submission.
The maximum corporate donations were received by the National parties in the financial year 2014-15 during which lok Sabha elections took place. ADR report says that the corporate donations received in fiscal year 2014-15 alone form 60 per cent of the total corporate donations received between fiscal year 2012-13 and 2015-16.
Corporate donations received in 2014-15 alone form 60 per cent of the total corporate donations received between 2012-13 and 2015-16, it added. It further said that donations from corporates to national parties reduced by 86.58 per cent between 2014-15 and 2015-16. "Despite not donating during 2012-13, Satya Electoral Trust was the top donor to three of the national parties, between 2012-13 and 2015-16. The Trust donated a total of 35 number of times in 3 years, amounting to Rs 260.87 crore" ADR said.
BJP declared receiving Rs 193.62 crore while Congress was the recipient of Rs 57.25 crore of funds from the Trust. General Electoral Trust, which was formed before the Electoral Trust Scheme was launched by the government in 2013, was the second highest corporate donor to BJP and Congress.