<p>Aiming to facilitate corporate houses that fund political parties through their electoral trusts, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has provided a format that would allow them to furnish a comprehensive set of details from the number of shareholders to the amount of contribution. <br /><br /></p>.<p>Released on Tuesday, the checklist would highlight the most essential facts firms must provide while filing details about the electoral trust with the Income Tax department. <br /><br />The format poses questions such as whether the electoral trust is a registered company under section 25 or created solely to distribute funds to political parties. <br /><br />The scheme allows business entities to register non-profit companies having 'Electoral Trust' in their names, thus differentiating them from the companies having other business interests.<br /><br />Earlier this year, the government notified the ET scheme to make corporate donations to political parties more transparent. <br /><br />The scheme requires companies to spend 95 per cent of the total contributions they receive in a given financial year to registered political parties within the same year in order to qualify for tax benefits. <br /><br />Besides forbidding them from taking cash contributions, the scheme also asks them to note down Permanent Account Numbers of individual donors within India and passport numbers of non-resident Indians. The trusts are not allowed to accept donations from foreign citizens or companies. <br /><br />Corporate houses in the past have admitted to have donated to political parties through election trusts.<br /><br />According to Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch, between 2004-05 and 2011-12, the Congress, BJP and the NCP received Rs 105.86 crore from six electoral trusts – General Electoral Trust (Aditya Birla Group), Electoral Trust (Tata Sons), Bharti Electoral Trust (Bharti Enterprises), Satya Electoral Trust, Harmony Electoral Trust and Corporate Electoral Trust.<br /><br />Out of that sum, the Congress received Rs 63.37 crore, the BJP Rs 41.49 crore and the NCP Rs 1 crore. Three other national parties the BSP, CPI and the CPM did not get any donation from these trusts since 2004.<br /></p>
<p>Aiming to facilitate corporate houses that fund political parties through their electoral trusts, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has provided a format that would allow them to furnish a comprehensive set of details from the number of shareholders to the amount of contribution. <br /><br /></p>.<p>Released on Tuesday, the checklist would highlight the most essential facts firms must provide while filing details about the electoral trust with the Income Tax department. <br /><br />The format poses questions such as whether the electoral trust is a registered company under section 25 or created solely to distribute funds to political parties. <br /><br />The scheme allows business entities to register non-profit companies having 'Electoral Trust' in their names, thus differentiating them from the companies having other business interests.<br /><br />Earlier this year, the government notified the ET scheme to make corporate donations to political parties more transparent. <br /><br />The scheme requires companies to spend 95 per cent of the total contributions they receive in a given financial year to registered political parties within the same year in order to qualify for tax benefits. <br /><br />Besides forbidding them from taking cash contributions, the scheme also asks them to note down Permanent Account Numbers of individual donors within India and passport numbers of non-resident Indians. The trusts are not allowed to accept donations from foreign citizens or companies. <br /><br />Corporate houses in the past have admitted to have donated to political parties through election trusts.<br /><br />According to Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch, between 2004-05 and 2011-12, the Congress, BJP and the NCP received Rs 105.86 crore from six electoral trusts – General Electoral Trust (Aditya Birla Group), Electoral Trust (Tata Sons), Bharti Electoral Trust (Bharti Enterprises), Satya Electoral Trust, Harmony Electoral Trust and Corporate Electoral Trust.<br /><br />Out of that sum, the Congress received Rs 63.37 crore, the BJP Rs 41.49 crore and the NCP Rs 1 crore. Three other national parties the BSP, CPI and the CPM did not get any donation from these trusts since 2004.<br /></p>
