New Delhi: Political parties received Rs 7,726 crore in non-electoral bond donations between 2013-2023 according to Election Commission of India (ECI) data, Businessline reported.
Of the Rs 7,726 crore, the BJP received nearly Rs 5,000 crore or 64.7%, followed by the Congress (10.7%), Bharat Rashtra Samithi (3.3%) and Aam Aadmi Party (3.1%).
According to the report, a large chunk of the total donation was made through transparent means of political funding.
Before the introduction of the electoral bonds scheme in 2018, donations to political parties that exceeded Rs 20,000 had to be declared under the political finance laws implemented in 2003 by the Bharaitya Janata Party-led government.
These donations, incentivised by 100% tax deductibility, saw a notable increase over the years, reaching Rs 1,247 crore in FY20 from Rs 309 crore in FY14. However, donations witnessed a slight decline to Rs 1,101 crore in FY23, the report said.
Corporate donations also play a significant role, with entities such as Prudent Electoral Trust (PET) emerging as leading contributors. In FY23, PET contributed Rs 256 crore to the BJP and Rs 90 crore to Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS). Additionally, M/S MKJ Enterprises Limited disbursed Rs 45 crore to the INC, while B.G. Shirke Construction Technology PVT Limited donated ₹35 crore to the BJP, the paper reported.
Anil Verma, head of the Association for Democratic Reforms, explained the transition from transparent to opaque political donations in India. “Party politics in India has become increasingly competitive over the years, leading to a rise in party expenditures for elections. To meet these growing expenses, parties often rely on resources generated from the corporate sector. This dynamic has resulted in the development of opaque funding mechanisms. Regardless of which political party is in power, they tend to utilize funding mechanisms to their advantage,” Verma said.
According to Eswaran Sridharan and Milan Vaishnav, authors of Costs of Democracy: Political Finance in India, nearly 75% of money received by the six national parties comes through anonymous donations that are below the Rs 20,000 limit, the report highlighted.
