The Election
Commission of India (ECI) had circulated Guidelines
for submission of contribution reports of Electoral Trusts in Letter No.
56/Electoral Trust/2014/PPEMS 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 by the ECI to all Electoral Trusts formed since then.
16 out of the 23 Electoral
Trusts, registered with the CBDT, submitted their
contribution details for FY 2020-21 to the ECI of which only 7 declared to have received any donations during that year.
The following report of ADR analyses the details
of donors of 7 Electoral Trusts formed after January, 2013 and the
contributions made by the Trusts to political parties during FY 2020-21. 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, please refer here:
FY 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20
Complete reports in English & Hindi with details of all contributions received and disbursed by the Electoral Trusts during FY 2020-21 are attached.
Link on website: https://adrindia.org/content/analysis-contribution-reports-electoral-trusts-fy-2020-21
Executive Summary
Renewal of approval of Electoral Trusts
According to Clause 5 (o) of the Electoral
Trusts Scheme, 2013, the approval given to a registered Electoral Trust “shall be valid for the assessment year
relevant to the financial year in which such application has been made and for
a further period, not exceeding three
assessment years, as may be specified in such approval” (emphasis added).
15
Electoral Trusts submitted applications for renewal of the Trusts to the CBDT. Details
of dates of renewal available in the Detailed
Report.
Overview of contributions report received by ECI from registered
Electoral Trusts, FY 2013-14 to 2020-21
- Out of the 23 registered
Electoral Trusts, 14 trusts have
been submitting copies of their Contributions report to the Election
Commission, consistently, since
their registration.
- Satya/Prudent Electoral Trust is the
only trust to submit its annual report for
all 8 years, FY 2013-14 to 2020-21, declaring contributions received each
year.
- There are 8 such registered Electoral Trusts that have either declared not receiving any contributions or whose contribution reports have not been
available on the ECI website, at all, since their registration. Refer to Detailed Report for complete
list of Electoral Trusts and their status of submission of contribution
reports.
Details of the donations received by Electoral Trusts, FY 2020-21
As per the response received from the ECI, dated 2nd
December, 2019, to ADR’s RTI application on the updated list of Electoral
Trusts, there are a total of 21 Electoral Trusts registered with the CBDT. Updated
list of approved Electoral Trusts by CBDT on 08 September, 2021, there
are two new Electoral Trusts registered with the CBDT. 16 of
whom had submitted their contribution reports. Only 7
Trusts declared receiving contributions from various corporate houses and
individuals. Registrations of 4 Electoral Trusts namely, Bajaj Electoral Trust, Gauri Welfare Association Electoral Trust,
Pratinidhi Electoral Trust and Bhartiya Socialist
Republican Electoral Trust Association were not renewed.
Contributions received and disbursed by Electoral Trusts during FY 2020-21
- According to the rules
formulated by the Central Government, Electoral Trusts are required to distribute at least 95% of the
total contributions received during the financial year along with the surplus
brought forward from the earlier financial year to the eligible political parties
before 31st March of the said financial year.
- 7 Electoral Trusts which have declared
receiving contributions during FY 2020-21, have received a total amount of Rs 258.4915 cr from corporates and individuals and
distributed Rs 258.4301 cr (99.976%) to various political parties.
Contributions made by Corporates and Individuals to Electoral Trusts, FY 2020-21
- Future Gaming
& Hotel Services contributed the highest
amount worth Rs 100 cr amongst all
donors of the Electoral Trusts, followed by Haldia Energy India Ltd with
Rs 25 cr and Megha Engineering & Infrastructures Limited which
contributed Rs 22 cr, to various
Trusts.
- 159 individuals
have
contributed to Electoral Trusts in FY 2020-21. 2 individuals contributed Rs 3.50
cr to Prudent Electoral Trust, 153
individuals contributed Rs 3.202 cr to
Small Donations Electoral Trust, 3 individuals gave a total of Rs 5 lakh
to Einzigartig Electoral Trust and 1
individual contributed Rs 1100 to Independent Electoral Trust.
- Top 10 donors have donated Rs
223.00 cr to Electoral Trusts, which forms 86.27% of the total donations received by the trusts during FY 2020-21.
Donations made by Electoral Trusts to Political Parties, FY 2020-21
- Prudent Electoral Trust donated Rs 209.00 cr to BJP, in contrast to Rs 217.75
cr contributed in FY 2019-20, while
Jaybharath Electoral Trust donated Rs 2.00 cr of its total income to BJP in FY 2020-21.
- Small Donations Electoral Trust donated Rs 3.31 cr to INC.
- Prudent Electoral Trust donated to 7 political parties, including major parties like BJP, JDU, INC, NCP, RJD, AAP & LJP.
- BJP received Rs 212.05 cr or 82.05% of the total donations received
by all political parties from Electoral Trusts.
- JDU received Rs 27 cr or 10.45%% of the total donations received by all parties
from all Seven Electoral Trusts.
- Other 10 political parties including INC, NCP,
AIADMK, DMK, RJD, AAP, LJP, CPM, CPI and Lok Thanthrik Jantha Dal received a
total of Rs 19.3801
cr collectively.