Press Release: Total donations declared by the 27 regional parties analysed, including both above and below Rs 20,000, amounted to Rs 233.686 cr from 6923 donations; 16 regional parties have declared receiving 1026 donations worth Rs 24.779 cr without PAN details

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Oct 29, 2021, 4:42:16 AM10/29/21

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Press Release

29th October, 2021

Analysis of Donations declared by Regional Political Parties – FY 2019-20

This report, prepared by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) focuses on donations declared by Regional Political Parties, during the Financial Year 2019-20, as submitted by the parties to the Election Commission of India (ECI).

For details of parties defaulting in their submission of contribution statements, donations declared by the parties without declaring PAN of donors, top donors and donations from foreign countries, refer to the detailed reports in English and Hindi, attached herewith.

To access the reports in both English and Hindi on our website, please see: https://adrindia.org/content/analysis-donations-received-regional-political-parties-fy2019-20

Executive Summary

The executive summary below lists the key observations drawn from the report:

I. Status of submission of Contribution Reports by Regional Parties to ECI (FY 2019-20)

Out of 53 regional parties analyzed, only 2 had submitted their donations reports to the ECI in the stipulated time period. 28 other regional parties have delayed their submission by a minimum of 6 days to 320 days. There are 23 regional political parties who have defaulted on the submission of their donation reports to the ECI during FY 2019-20, till date, 29^th October, 2021.

II. Donations to Regional Parties as declared to the ECI (FY 2019-20)

Under Section 29C (1) of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, political parties are required to prepare a report providing details of contributions in excess of twenty thousand rupees from any person in a particular financial year to avail 100% tax exemption. However, in FY 2019-20, we see that 7 regional parties (IUML, DMK, PMK, MNS, JVM-P, SDF and NPF) have also provided details of donations received below Rs 20,000 in their contribution reports.
The total amount of donations declared by 27 regional parties analysed, including both above and below Rs 20,000, was Rs 233.686 cr, from 6923 donations.
No donations have been declared by NDPP, DMDK and JKNC for FY 2019-20.
With regard to the total amount of donations, SHS leads with Rs 62.859 cr from 436 donations followed by AIADMK, which has declared receiving Rs 52.17 cr from 3 donations. AAP declared receiving Rs 37.37 cr that is the third highest amongst all regional parties. BJD and YSR-C have declared total donations Rs 28.20 cr and Rs 8.924 cr respectively.
81.10% or Rs 189.523 cr of the total donations received by regional parties have been received solely by top 5 regional parties.

III. Comparison of donations received by Regional Parties between FY 2018-19 and FY 2019-20

JMM, LJP, SP and AAP saw the maximum percentage increase in their income from donations between FY 2018-19 and 2019-20.
Donations to JMM increased by 37794%, followed by LJP for which it was 410%, SP for which it was 317%, and AAP that saw an increase of 156%.
Two parties (AIADMK, JVM-P) had not received any donations during FY 2018-19 but during FY 2019-20 AIADMK declared Rs 52.17 cr and JVM-P has declared Rs 23.08 lakhs.
YSR-C, TRS, TDP, SHS and JDU declared the highest decrease in the amount of donations received between FY 2018-19 and 2019-20, of Rs 71.651 cr, Rs 40.876 cr, Rs 23.573 cr, Rs 7.371 cr and Rs 7.098 cr respectively.
The top five parties which declared the highest donations in FY 2019-20 are SHS, AIADMK, AAP, BJD and YSR-C. Out of these parties, SHS, BJD and YSR-C declared a decrease in their donations while AIADMK and AAP declared an increase in the donations in comparison with FY 2018-19.

IV. Cash donations declared by the Regional Parties – FY 2019-20

Out of the total donations of Rs 233.686 cr declared by the regional parties, Rs 4.884 cr from 421 donations was received in cash during FY 2019-20. This formed 2.09% of the total donations to the parties.
Maximum donations in cash was declared by IUML, which collected a total of Rs 4.63 cr, followed by PMK with Rs 52.20 lakhs, LJP with Rs 6.00 lakhs, NPF with Rs 3.92 lakhs and DMK with Rs 0.29 lakh.
Among all the states, donors from Kerala made the highest donations of Rs 4.63 cr in cash followed by donors from Tamil Nadu who donated a total of Rs 13.93 lakhs in cash.
Donations worth Rs 11.48 lakhs in cash did not have address details. 4 Regional Parties (PMK, LJP, NPF and DMK) have received such donations in FY 2019-20.

V. State-wise donations to Regional Parties

Segregation of donations according to location was made by ADR based on the addresses provided by the parties in their donations report to the ECI.
Donations declared by the regional parties contained details of donations received from 26 States/Union Territories/common capitals and 22 countries according to the declared address of donors. Only AAP declared donations from abroad.
Regional parties have declared receiving the highest donations of Rs 110.475 cr from Maharashtra, followed by Rs 46.24 cr from Delhi and Rs 9.00 cr from Karnataka.

0.79% or Rs 1.847 cr of the total donations above Rs 20,000 to AAP was received from abroad.
A total of Rs 30.766 cr (13.17% of total donations received by the regional parties, FY 2019-20), could not be attributed to any State/Union Territory due to incomplete or lack of information provided by the parties.

VI. Donors from Corporates/ business sectors Vs. Individual donors

484 donations from corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 181.522 cr were made to the regional parties while 5916 individual donors donated Rs 42.48 cr to the parties during FY 2019-20.
In case of National Parties, 2341 donations were made by corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 921.999 cr (90.944% of total donations) while 3492 individual donors donated Rs 74.46 cr (7.345% of total donations) during FY 2019-20.
With the maximum number of donations during FY 2019-20, SHS has declared 82 donations from corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 48.251 cr while 325 individual donors donated Rs 13.742 cr to the party.

VII. Disclosure of PAN details in donations

Out of 27 regional parties which declared receiving donations, 16 parties, have declared donations of donors without their PAN details.
Rs 24.779 cr or 10.604% of the total amount of donations received by regional parties do not have PAN details.
It is to be noted that parties like PMK, JVM-P, AGP and NPF have not provided PAN details of even a single donor in their donations statement.

Observations of ADR

ECI notification dated 29^th August,’14 stated that “…no tax deduction shall be allowed on the contributions made in cash by any person or company to a political party. Accordingly, the political party shall maintain name and address of all such individuals, companies or entities making donation to it, excepting petty sums, donated by the public only during its public rallies”. This notification was applicable for donations made from FY 2014-15 onwards. Only NPF have received 229 cash donations worth a total of Rs 3.92 lakhs that do not have name, address and PAN details.
For FY 2019-20, address details for 599 donations worth Rs 30.766 cr (13.17 % of total donations received by the regional parties) were not declared by parties.
After the analysis by ADR, it is found that the total sum of donations above Rs 20,000 declared by AAP in its contribution report is incorrect. On adding the various number of donations, it is found that the total declared by the party is Rs 37.52 cr, while the actual amount is Rs 37.37 cr.
Out of 27 Regional Parties which declared receiving donations, 16 parties, have declared receiving 1026 donations worth Rs 24.779 cr without PAN details.
For a large number of donations, regional parties have mentioned ‘Online/RTGS/Cheque no.’ as mode of contribution without providing any further information such as bank details. This makes it difficult to verify whether the information given is accurate or not.
Out of a total of 6923 donations, mode of contribution for 1071 donations worth Rs 94.628 cr is incomplete/undeclared. Of these, mode of payment for 3 donations worth Rs 52.17 cr received by AIADMK is incomplete.
14 regional parties namely (TRS, TDP, YSR-C, BJD, DMK, SHS, AAP, JDU, SP, JDS, SAD, AIADMK, RJD & JMM) declared receiving donations via Electoral Bonds worth Rs 447.498 cr. The donations to these parties through Electoral Bonds have not been accounted for in this report, since they were accounted for in the analysis of audit reports of these parties for FY 2019-20, as per the format. It is to be noted that JMM party declared the name of the donor who donated Rs 1 crore through Electoral Bond in its contribution report for FY 2019-20, however, this income through electoral bonds has not been declared by the party in its audit report, FY 2019-20.