Press Release: 6 Electoral Trusts donated Rs 177.40 cr to 19 Political parties during FY 2014-15; CPM did not declare its donations of Rs 2.35 lakhs from Triumph Electoral Trust in its donations report to the ECI
ADR India
Press Release
25th April, 2016
Analysis of Contribution Report of Electoral Trusts for FY 2014-15
Introduction
The Election Commission of India (ECI) had circulated Guidelines for submission of contribution reports of Electoral Trusts on the 6th June, 2014 wherein instructions were issued to all the Electoral Trusts formed after January,’13 (and approved by the CBDT), to submit an Annual Report containing details of contributions received by the Electoral Trusts and disbursed by them to political parties in the interest of transparency:
These guidelines were issued to 7 Electoral Trusts formed after January, 2013, which included Satya Electoral Trust, Pratinidhi Electoral Trust, People’s Electoral Trust, Progressive Electoral Trust, Janhit Electoral Trust, Bajaj Electoral Trust and Janpragati Electoral Trust. These guidelines are being sent to all Electoral Trusts formed since then.
Before the transparency rules governing contributions to Electoral Trusts were formulated by the Central Government, 6 Electoral Trusts had donated a total amount of Rs 105 crores to the National Parties between FY 2004-05 and 2011-12. As the rules are not retrospective, these 6 Electoral Trusts which were General Electoral Trust, Electoral Trust, Harmony Electoral Trust, Corporate Electoral Trust, Bharti Electoral Trust and Satya Electoral Trust are not required to follow the transparency rules and declare their donor details. Thus, details of donors to these 6 Electoral Trusts remain unknown.
It is to be noted that General Electoral Trust donated a total of Rs 131.65 crores to 7 political parties during FY 2014-15. But the details of those who donated to the Trust is unknown.
Party | Donations made by General Electoral Trust during FY 2014-15 |
BJP | Rs 63.20 crores |
INC | Rs 54.10 crores |
BJD | Rs 10 crores |
Shiv Sena | Rs 2 crores |
MNS | Rs 1.50 crores |
JMM | Rs 75 lakhs |
JVM-P | Rs 10 lakhs |
TOTAL | Rs 131.65 crores |
A total of 15 Electoral Trusts submitted their contribution details for FY 2014-15 to the ECI of which only 6 declared to have received any donations from corporates. The following report of ADR/ NEW analyses the details of donors of 6 Electoral Trusts formed after January, 2013 and the contributions made by the Trusts to political parties during FY 2014-15. For a detailed report on the Electoral Trusts Scheme launched by the Central Government, the subsequent circular of the ECI in this regard and ADR’s analysis of the donations report of the Electoral Trusts for the FY 2013-14, please refer here.
Executive Summary
1. Details of the donations received by Electoral Trusts, FY 2014-15
As per the letter dated 26th June, 2015, sent by the CBDT to ECI on the updated list of Electoral Trusts, there are a total of 15 Electoral Trusts registered with the CBDT all of whom had submitted the contributions report.
S. No. | Electoral Trust | Total contributions received |
1 | Satya Electoral Trust | Rs 141.78 crores |
2 | Progressive Electoral Trust | Rs 25.149 crores |
3 | Janpragati Electoral Trust | Rs 4.02 crores |
4 | Bajaj Electoral Trust | Rs 3.05 crores |
5 | Triumph Electoral Trust | Rs 3.028 crores |
6 | Samaj Electoral Trust | Rs 0.525 crores |
7 | Harmony Electoral trust | Rs 0 |
8 | Janata Nirvachak Electoral Trust | Rs 0 |
9 | Janhit Electoral Trust | Rs 0 |
10 | People's Electoral Trust | Rs 0 |
11 | Pratinidhi Electoral Trust | Rs 0 |
12 | Paribartan Electoral Trust | Rs 0 |
13 | Gauri Welfare Association Electoral Trust | Rs 0 |
14 | Swadeshi Electoral Trust | Rs 0 |
15 | Bhartiya Socialist Republican Electoral Trust | Rs 0 |
2. Contributions received and disbursed by Electoral Trusts during FY 2014-15
a. According to the rules formulated by the Central Government, Electoral Trusts are required to donate 95% of their total income to registered political parties in a financial year.
b. Electoral Trusts received a total amount of Rs 177.55 crores from corporates and individuals and distributed Rs 177.40 crores (99.92%) to various political parties.
3. Contributions made by Corporates to Electoral Trusts, FY 2014-15
a. Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd contributed the maximum amount of Rs 40 crores to Satya Electoral Trust which formed 22.53% of the Trust’s total donations followed by DLF Ltd. which donated Rs 25.01 crores and constituted 14.08% of total donations to Satya Electoral Trust.
b. Tata Steel Limited contributed the maximum amount of donated Rs 14.134 crores which formed 56.19% of total donations to Progressive Electoral Trust followed by Tata Sons Limited which donated Rs 4.74 crores and constituted 18.85% of total donations.
4. Donations made by Electoral Trusts to Political Parties
a. CPM received a total of Rs 2.35 lakhs from Triumph Electoral Trust during FY 2014-15 but the party did not declare the same in its donations report to the ECI.
b. Satya Electoral Trust donated 75.66% or Rs 107.25 crores to BJP while Triumph Electoral Trust donated 66% or Rs 2 crores of its total income to the party.
c. The six Electoral Trusts made contributions to 16 recognized regional parties which include BJD, INLD and AAP among others. Total donations received by the regional parties from Electoral Trusts was Rs 27.58 crores.
d. Satya Electoral Trust gave Rs 5 crores to INLD but the party has not filed its donations report to the ECI for FY 2014-15.
Recommendations of ADR
1. 6 Electoral Trusts, 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 and had donated a total amount of Rs 105 crores to the National Parties between FY 2004-05 and 2011-12. As the rules are not retrospective, these 6 Electoral Trusts are not required to declare their donor details. General Electoral Trust donated Rs 131.65 crores to 7 political parties during FY 2014-15.
Thus, details of donors to these 6 Electoral Trusts remain unknown thereby leading to speculation on whether donations to these Trusts was only a means of getting tax exemption or a way to convert black 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 31st January, 2013, should also apply to the above mentioned Trusts so as to improve transparency.
2. The names of Electoral Trusts, currently, do not indicate the name of the Company/ group of companies which set up the Trusts. In order 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.
3. Those Electoral Trusts which have not responded to and complied with the guidelines circulated by the ECI should be heavily penalized as indicated in the notification issued by the ECI to the Trusts.
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