Electoral bonds widely used; donations to BJP three times that of other parties

Thirty-one parties together received Rs 16,437.63 crore as donations in six fiscals since 2016-17, with electoral bonds accounting for Rs 9,188.35 crore or 55.9 per cent of total receipts, signalling the wider acceptance of the financial instrument especially among donors due to its anonymity.

A report released by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Monday showed that the corporate sector donated Rs 4,614.53 crore (28.07 per cent) between 2016-17 and 2021-22 while Rs 2,634.74 crore (16.03 per cent) came from other sources.

The period under analysis was during which electoral bonds were introduced and the government removed the limit for political donations by companies, where only 7.5 per cent of a firm’s average three-year net profit was allowed to be donated.

The analysis showed that the increase in donations from electoral bonds between 2017-18, when the scheme was implemented, and 2021-22 for seven national parties was 743 per cent while it was only 48 per cent for corporate donations. The increase in donations from electoral bonds for 24 regional parties stood at 14,026.4 per cent in the specified period, while corporate donations grew by 389.55 per cent.

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Maximum donations to national parties were from electoral bonds—Rs 7,055.9 crore or 53.49 per cent of Rs 13,190 crore—while the same was true for regional parties too: Rs 2,132.45 crore or 65.67 per cent of Rs 3,246.95 crore.

During this period, the BJP received Rs 10,122.03 crore as donations, of which 52.08 per cent or Rs 5,271.97 crore came through electoral bonds. The report showed that the total donation received by the BJP was three times more than the total donations declared by six other national parties.

Electoral bonds contributed Rs 952.29 crore (or 61.54 per cent of its total donation) to the Congress, while the Trinamool Congress had Rs 767.88 crore or 93.27 per cent from electoral bonds.

With regard to corporate donations, the BJP’s share was Rs 3,299.85 crore while it was Rs 406.45 crore for the Congress.

When it comes to regional parties, Naveen Patnaik-led BJD got Rs 622 crore or 89.81 per cent of total donations from electoral bonds. For DMK, it was Rs 431.5 crore or 90.7 per cent. BJD got corporate donations to the tune of Rs 67.28 crore while the DMK got Rs 23.08 crore.

During the six fiscals, Prudent Electoral Trust contributed the highest amount of Rs 1,604.43 crore followed by Progressive Electoral Trust (Rs 549.9750 crore) and B G Shirke Construction Technology Pvt Ltd. (Rs 102.155 crore).

The maximum corporate donations declared by the 31 recognised political parties came from Delhi, amounting to Rs 1,843.697 crore, followed by Maharashtra (Rs 1,418.130 crore) and Gujarat (Rs 213.540 crore).

Total corporate donations having undeclared addresses amounted to Rs 252.15 crore while corporate donations with incomplete addresses amounted to Rs 2.19 crore, it added.