National parties receive Rs 711 crore donation from 'unknown sources' in 2016-17: Association for Democratic Reforms

The income of seven national parties from "unknown sources" during 2016-17 was Rs 710.80 crore, while total donations (above Rs 20,000) declared by them stood at Rs 589.38 crore, with BJP receiving Rs 532.27 crore from 1,194 entities, says a report.

Donations declared by BJP is more than nine times the aggregate declared by Indian National Congress (INC), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) for the same period, the report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said today.

"The total donations (above Rs 20,000) declared by the national parties was Rs 589.38 crore, from 2,123 donations. A total of Rs 532.27 crore was declared by BJP from 1,194 donations while INC declared receiving Rs 41.90 crore from 599 donations," it said.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) declared that it did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000 during 2016-17, as it has been declaring for the past 11 years.

Total donations of national parties during 2016-17 increased by Rs 487.36 crore from Rs 102.02 crore during the previous financial year 2015-16, the report jointly prepared by ADR and National Election Watch (NEW) said.

Donations to BJP increased from Rs 76.85 crore during 2015-16 to Rs 532.27 crore in 2016-17, while that of NCP increased from Rs 71 lakh in 2015-16 to Rs 6.34 crore in 2016-17, the Delhi-based think-tank said.

Also, donations to AITC increased by 231 per cent, CPM and INC have declared an increase of 190 per cent and 105 per cent, respectively, as per their donation reports for 2015-16 and 2016-17, while that of CPI decreased by 9 per cent, it said.

The total income of national parties for 2016-17 was Rs 1,559.17 crore. Total income of national parties from known donors (details of donors as available from contribution report submitted by the parties to Election Commission) was Rs 589.38 crore, which is 37.8 per cent of the total income of the seven national parties in 2016-17, the report said.

Total income of the parties from other known sources ( sale of assets, membership fees, bank interest, sale of publications and party levy) was Rs 258.99 crore, or 16.61 per cent of the total income.

As per ADR, total income of seven national parties from unknown sources (income specified in IT Returns whose sources are unknown), for 2016-17 was Rs 710.80 crore, which is 45.59 per cent of the total income of the parties from all over India.

BJP's total income from unknown sources, including voluntary contributions, miscellaneous income, was Rs 464.94 crore during 2016-17, while that of Congress' total income from unknown sources stood at Rs 126.124 crore.

Among unknown sources of funding, maximum funds were collected under "voluntary contributions" by the BJP during 2016-17. A total of Rs 464.84 crore was collected under this head, which formed 99.98 per cent of the total income from unknown sources.

The most preferred unknown source of funding for INC was "sale of coupons" under which the party collected a total of Rs 115.64 crore which formed 91.69 per cent of its total income from unknown sources during 2016-17, it said.

The report further said that 708 donations to national parties were made by corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 563.24 crore (95.56 per cent of total donations), while 1,354 individual donors donated Rs 25.07 crore (4.25 per cent of total donations) to the parties during 2016-17.

ADR said that 531 donations from corporate/business sectors were made to BJP (Rs 515.43 crore) while 663 individual donors donated Rs 16.82 crore to the party during 2016-17.

INC received a total of Rs 36.06 crore via 98 donations from corporate/business sectors and Rs 5.84 crore through 501 individual donors during 2016-17.

Satya Electoral Trust donated a total of Rs 265.12 crore to BJP and INC and is one of the top two donors to the two parties. The Trust donated Rs 251.22 crore to BJP and Rs 13.90 crore to INC, the report said.

Among state-wise donations to national parties, a total of Rs 290.90 crore was donated from Delhi, followed by Rs 112.31 crore from Maharashtra and Rs 20.22 crore from Uttar Pradesh, it added.