New Delhi: Only eight of 30 Sensex companies disclosed their electoral bond purchases or other financial contributions to political parties in their annual reports at least once in the past five financial years, Business Standard reported.
Collectively, these companies spent Rs 628 crore on political contributions in the past five years, the business daily said, citing their annual reports.
The telecom major Bharti Airtel contributed the highest amount of Rs 241 crore, followed by Tata Steel (Rs 175 crore) and Larsen & Toubro (Rs 85 crore).
Bharti Airtel emerged as the only Sensex company that consistently donated to political parties each year, in the past five financial years.
According to its annual reports, the company and its subsidiaries collectively donated Rs 241 crore to political parties between FY19 and FY23, either through electoral bonds or contributions to electoral trusts.
“Other expenses include political contributions amounting to Rs 300 million (Rs 30 crore) and Rs 1,025 million (Rs 102.5 crore) made under Section 182 of the Act (Companies Act, 2013) during the year ended March 31, 2023 and March 31, 2022 respectively,” said Bharti Airtel in its annual report for 2022-23.
In contrast, other index companies in Business Standard’s list only sporadically reported expenditures on electoral bonds or donations to political parties in their annual reports.
“For instance, L&T and Mahindra & Mahindra each reported making political donations twice in their annual reports in the past five years. L&T purchased electoral bonds worth Rs 35 crore and Rs 50 crore in FY19 and FY20 respectively, while M&M contributed Rs 1.02 crore and Rs 23 crore to the New Democratic Electoral Trust in FY19 and FY20, respectively. Neither company mentioned any other political donations or electoral bond purchases in subsequent years,” the newspaper reported.
“The company purchased electoral bonds for Rs 50 crore and issued the same to political parties as the company’s political contribution,” L&T said in its annual report for 2019-20.
Tata Steel, which disclosed a donation of Rs 175 crore to an electoral trust in its 2018-19 annual report, is not listed in the Election Commission’s database of companies that bought electoral bonds, the business daily said.
Additionally, five other index companies reported donations to political parties only once in the past five financial years: UltraTech Cement (Rs 23 crore in FY19), Bajaj Finance (Rs 20 crore in FY20), Maruti Suzuki (Rs 20 crore in FY23), and Tech Mahindra (Rs 15 crore in FY20).
Sun Pharmaceuticals, despite being recorded as purchasing electoral bonds worth Rs 31.5 crore since FY19, as per the Election Commission data, did not disclose this or any other political contributions in its annual reports over the past five years. Instead, it only lists expenses on donations without detailing their breakdown.
