4662 crores for Political parties in seven years
13 Sep, 2012Relying on the Income-Tax (I-T) returns and list of donors submitted to the Election Commission (EC) for the period 2004-2011, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) has revealed that since 2004 political parties in India have earned Rs. 4662 crores from donations and other sources.
The data gathered through applications filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act shows that amongst the political parties, the ruling Congress got the highest amount of Rs. 2008 crore which was mostly by selling coupons followed by BJP whose 994 crore came mostly from donations.
Highest donors were trust run by the corporates who paid donations to almost every major party. The General Electoral Trust of the Aditya Birla Group donated Rs. 36.4 crore to Congress, Rs. 26 crore to the BJP and Rs. 50 lakh to the SP. Similarly Torrent Power donated Rs. 14.15 crore to the Congress, Rs. 13 crore to the BJP and Rs. 1 crore to the NCP.
Other major donators from corporates included Asianet Holdings, Vedanta subsidiaries - Sterlite Industries and Madras Aluminium, Public and Political Awareness Trust backed by Vedanta and Videocon Industries.