 "DLF, Indiabulls led political donors in FY15")
Based on contribution reports filed by electoral trusts to the Election Commission of India, the analysis shows 15 of these bodies approved by the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Of these, six had reported contributions totaling Rs 177.55 crore. Electoral trusts are required to donate 95 per cent of their total income to registered political parties in a financial year. In line with this, the trusts distributed Rs 177.4 crores (99.9 per cent) to various political parties.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accounted for the lion’s share of these donations, cornering Rs 111.35 crore or 63 per cent. The Congress got a little less than 18 per cent. Another 17, including Nationalist Congress party (Rs 6.8 crore), Biju Janata Dal (BJD, Rs 5.5 crore) and Indian National Lok Dal (Rs 5.05 crore) shared the leftovers.
The bulk came from the Satya electoral trust, which received contributions of Rs 141.78 crore in FY15. Three DLF group companies — DLF, DLF Cybercities and DLF Assets — together contributed Rs 45 crore to Satya. Among individual donors to it, Indiabulls Housing Finance topped the list, contributing Rs 40 crore in two instalments of Rs 20 crore each. Two Bharti group companies, Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel, together gave Rs 31 crore. Hero MotoCorp, Kalpataru, Jubilant Foodworks and JK group firms were other donors to Satya.
The BJP received Rs 107.25 crore or 75 per cent share from this trust, followed by the Congress (13.2 per cent) and NCP (4.2per cent).
Eight Tata Group companies contributed a total of Rs 25.15 crore to Progressive Electoral Trust in FY15. Tata Steel was top with Rs 14.1 crore, followed by Tata Sons (Rs 4.7 crore) and Tata Motors (Rs 1.8 crore). The Congress party accounted for Rs 9.9 crore or about 40 per cent. BJD got Rs 5.25 crore (21 per cent), followed by the BJP (Rs 2. 1 crore).
Bajaj Auto was the only contributor to Bajaj Electoral Trust, which received Rs 3 crore. Four Murugappa Group companies contributed Rs 3 crore between themselves to the Triumph Electoral Trust and three small firms contributed Rs 52 lakh to Samaj Electoral Trust. Donation break-ups of these three small trusts were not available.
An executive of ADR said it had stopped classifying electoral trusts as belonging to or operated by a certain corporate group after certain companies disputed this last year. “The names of electoral trusts, currently, do not indicate the name of the company/group of companies which set up the trusts. To have greater transparency regarding details of corporates which fund political parties, it would be ideal to include the name of the parent company in the name of the electoral trust,” ADR said in its analysis.
Apart from the 15 approved by CBDT, six more — General Electoral Trust, Electoral Trust, Harmony Electoral Trust, Corporate Electoral Trust, Bharti Electoral Trust and Satya Electoral Trust — were formed before the transparency rules were formulated by the central government. As the rules are not retrospective, these six are not required to declare their donor details. Among these, General Electoral donated Rs 131.65 crores to seven political parties during 2014-15. The BJP received Rs 63.2 crore (48 per cent) and the Congress Rs 54 crore (41 per cent). BJD, Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena were among other recipients.
ADR said details of donors to these six electoral trusts remain unknown, leading to speculation on whether donations to these were a means of getting tax exemption or a way to convert undisclosed money stashed in tax havens to white money in India. “Therefore, details of donors to these electoral trusts which were formed before the CBDT rules came into existence should also be disclosed. Also, the same rules which apply to those trusts formed after January 31, 2013, should also apply to the above mentioned trusts, to improve transparency.”