Press Release: The total donations (above Rs 20,000) declared by the National parties for FY 2022-23 was Rs 850.438 cr from 12,167 donations

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Press Release

Date: 14 February, 2024

Analysis of Donations Received above Rs 20,000 by National Political Parties – FY 2022-23

This report, prepared by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), focuses on donations above Rs 20,000, received by the National political parties during the financial year 2022-23, as per details submitted by the parties to the Election Commission of India (ECI). The National parties include Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M) and National People’s Party (NPEP).

The reports in both English and Hindi can be accessed from the links given below:

https://adrindia.org/2024-upload/Final_English_Analysis%20of%20donations%20declared%20by%20National%20Parties%20-%20FY%202022-23.pdf

https://adrindia.org/2024-upload/Final_Hindi_Analysis%20of%20donations%20declared%20by%20National%20Parties%20-%20FY%202022-23.pdf

Executive Summary

Status of Submission of Contribution Reports of National Parties, FY 2022-23

The due date for submission of contribution reports for the parties was 30 September 2023.
Only BSP and AAP submitted their contribution reports on time while CPI(M), BJP, NPEP and INC submitted after a delay of 29 days, 30 days, 58 days, and 58 days respectively.

S. No.	Political Party	Financial Year- 2022-23: Due date for filing reports: 30 September, 2023
S. No.	Political Party	Party Code	Date of Submission	No of days by which delayed
1	Bahujan Samaj Party	BSP	27 June 2023	-
2	Aam Aadmi Party	AAP	30 September 2023	-
3	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	CPI(M)	30 October 2023	29 Days
4	Bharatiya Janata Party	BJP	31 October 2023	30 Days
5	National People's Party	NPEP	28 November 2023	58 Days
6	Indian National Congress	INC	28 November 2023	58 Days

Donations above Rs 20,000 to National Parties from all over India, FY 2022-23

The total donations (above Rs 20,000) declared by the National parties for FY 2022-23 was Rs 850.438 cr from 12,167 donations.
A total of Rs 719.858 cr from 7,945 donations was declared by BJP followed by Rs 79.924 cr from 894 donations declared by INC. The donations declared by BJP are more than five times the aggregate declared by INC, AAP, NPEP and CPI(M) for the same period.
BSP declared that the party did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000 during FY 2022-23, as it has been declaring for the past 17 years.

Comparison of donations received by National parties during FY 2021-22 and FY 2022-23

The total donations of the National parties during FY 2022-23 increased by Rs 91.701 cr, an increase of 12.09% from the previous financial year 2021-22.
Donations to BJP increased from Rs 614.626 cr during FY 2021-22 to Rs 719.858 cr during FY 2022-23 (17.12% increase). While the party’s donations decreased by 41.49% during FY 2020-21 in comparison to FY 2019-20.
INC’s donations decreased from Rs 95.459 cr during FY 2021-22 to Rs 79.924 cr during FY 2022-23 (-16.27% decrease). While INC’s donations increased by 28.09% between FY 2020-21 and FY 2021-22.
In comparison to the previous financial year, the decrease in donations declared by CPI(M) was 39.56% (Rs 3.978 cr), and by AAP was 2.99% (Rs 1.143 cr).

State-wise donations to National Parties, FY 2022-23

Segregation of donations according to state was made by ADR based on the addresses provided by the parties in their donations report to the ECI.
A total of Rs 276.202 cr was donated to the National Parties from Delhi, followed by Rs 160.509 cr from Gujarat and Rs 96.273 cr from Maharashtra.
A total of Rs 22.348 cr (2.63% of total donations received by the National parties, FY 2022-23) could not be attributed to any State/ Union Territory due to incomplete/undeclared information provided by the parties.

Donors from corporates/business sectors Vs. individual donors

3318 donations to the National parties were made by corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 680.495 cr (80.017% of total donations) while 8567 individual donors donated Rs 166.621 cr (19.592% of total donations) to the parties during FY 2022-23.
3067 donations from corporate/business sectors were made to BJP (Rs 610.491 cr) while 4612 individual donors donated Rs 106.724 cr to the party during FY 2022-23.
INC received a total of Rs 55.625 cr via 70 donations from corporate/business sectors and Rs 24.249 cr via 823 individual donors during FY 2022-23.
BJP (Rs 610.491 cr) received more than eight times the total amount (Rs 70.004 cr) of corporate donations declared by all other National parties for the FY 2022-23.

Top donors to National Parties, FY 2022-23

Prudent Electoral Trust donated a total of Rs 257.15 cr to BJP and AAP together and is the top donor to parties that received the maximum donations. The Trust donated Rs 256.25 cr to BJP (35.60% of total funds received by the party) and Rs 90.00 lakhs to AAP (2.43% of total funds received by the party).
M/s. MKJ Enterprises Ltd donated Rs 45.00 cr from 7 donations to INC and B.G. Shirke Construction Technology Pvt Ltd donated Rs 35.00 cr from 3 donations to BJP.
P.C. Realty donated Rs 10.25 cr from 9 donations, Ace Construction/Jackson Patton donated Rs 10.00 cr from 2 donations, Modern Road Makers Pvt Ltd donated Rs 10.00 cr from 1 donation and Mang Family Office Llp donated Rs 7.50 cr from 2 donations to BJP in the FY 2022-23.
For details of top 10 donations to National Parties, refer Annexure – 1.

Observations and Recommendations of ADR

Observations

CPI(M), BJP, NPEP and INC submitted their contribution reports after a delay of 29 days, 30 days, 58 days and 58 days, respectively.
It is to be noticed that CPI(M) has declared Rs 6.027 cr but the actual calculated amount is Rs 6.077 cr in its donation statement for FY 2022-23.
4 National parties, BJP, INC, NPEP and CPI(M) had not declared PAN details of 1128 donations through which the parties collected a total of Rs 20.58 cr (2.42% of the total donations declared by National parties).
5 National Parties (BJP- Rs 1.098 cr, INC-Rs 92 lakhs, NPEP- Rs 35 lakhs, CPI(M)- Rs 7.89 lakhs and AAP- Rs 1.00 lakh) have declared Rs 2.457 cr from 93 donations having missing/incorrect PAN details.
INC declared 376 donations of Rs 58.122 cr, BJP collected 2761 donations worth Rs 36.491 cr, AAP collected 912 donations of Rs 22.188 cr, CPI(M) collected 158 donations of Rs 3.05 cr and NPEP collected 4 donations of Rs 87 lakhs having incomplete cheque/DD details where cheque number, bank details on which it was drawn and the date on which the cheque was received/ encashed is not provided. Thus, without the complete cheque/DD details, it would be a time-consuming process to link the donors against their donations and hence, trace the money trail.
As done for the last 17 years, BSP has remarkably declared again that the party did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000.

Recommendations

The Supreme Court gave a judgment on September 13, 2013 declaring that no part of a candidate’s affidavit should be left blank. Similarly, no part of the Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donations above Rs 20,000 should be blank.
All donors who have donated a minimum of Rs 20,000 as a single or multiple donations should provide their PAN details.
Full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI. Some countries where this is done include Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan. In none of these countries is it possible for nearly 50% of the source of funds to be unknown, but at present it is so in India.
The National parties should, ideally, lead by example by filing complete and correct statements of donations to the ECI well in time for public scrutiny so as to encourage financial transparency.
It is suggested that the ECI publicize on its website details of the action taken (if any) against political parties that fail to provide required details (such as name, address, PAN and mode of payment) of individuals, companies or entities making donations in cash.
Incomplete contributions reports having missing or incorrect PAN/mode of payment details must be returned to the parties by the ECI, to deter them from providing incomplete information.
The National and Regional political parties must provide all information on their finances under the Right to Information Act. This will go a long way in strengthening political parties, elections and democracy.
Annual scrutiny of donations reports of National, Regional and unrecognized parties should be initiated by a dedicated department of the CBDT, to discourage donations from shell companies or illegal entities.