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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Companies donate big to Congress, BJP-Anuja and Liz Mathew

Companies donate big to Congress, BJP-Anuja and Liz Mathew

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published Published on Sep 11, 2012   modified Modified on Sep 11, 2012
-Live Mint/ The Wall Street Journal

Contributions more than doubled between 2004 and 2009 polls; experts say published figures just tip of the iceberg 

Contributions, including money from top companies, to the country’s two largest political parties, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), more than doubled between the 2004 and 2009 general elections.

This revelation affirms a trend of companies, most of which are listed, opting for a transparent route to make their contributions to political parties. This is partly prompted by companies being able to get a 100% tax write-off on donations through trusts; two of the largest donors to both parties are trusts.

This is based on the income-tax returns filed by the political parties and accessed under the Right to Information Act by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a New Delhi-based non-governmental organization that works to improve electoral processes.

However, experts said that what has been published is just the “tip of the iceberg” and much of the corporate contributions to the political parties go unregistered.

“The recent scams indicate that more money was thrown at different levels and distribution pattern is that it would fall into different kitties,” said N. Bhaskara Rao, a psephologist and chairman, Centre for Media Studies. Rao’s earlier study on expenditure in Indian elections had projected that the general election in 2009 could cost more than the money spent on the US presidential race of 2008.

According to the ADR study, most major political parties reported a growth in income accruals between the two general elections.

The Congress party’s income, as reported in annual tax returns, rose from Rs.222.07 crore in the election year 2004-05 to Rs.467.57 in 2009-10. Similarly, it went up for the BJP from Rs.104.12 crore to Rs.258 crore.

Among the top donors to the Congress, the BJP and the Samajwadi Party (SP) are the General Electoral Trust, Torrent Power Ltd, the Bharti Electoral Trust, Asianet V Holding Pvt. Ltd, the Electoral Trust and ITC Ltd.

Mint could not independently verify the source and amount of the contributions.

The Aditya Birla Group, while not denying any association, said it does not oversee the working of the General Electoral Trust, which is managed by a different set of people, who could not be immediately reached for comment.

Asianet confirmed that it had donated money, but the amount could not be verified immediately, while the Bharti Group confirmed that the Bharti Electoral Trust is associated with the company and that the payment had been made, without making any further comment.

The details of the Electoral Trust could not be ascertained. Torrent Power and ITC did not reply to emails sent by Mint.

Interestingly, a number of companies that figured in the list of 195 firms that were allocated coal blocks by the government have donated to both the national parties. The national auditor’s finding that irregularities in coal block allocations may have cost the exchequer Rs.1.86 trillion has led to a face-off between the BJP and the Congress.
According to the analysis by ADR, the main source of income is through donations by companies. Together with individual voluntary contributions, interest earnings, and income from the sale of coupons and membership fees, the total income of the Congress between 2004-05 and 2010-11 aggregated Rs.2,008.71 crore, while it was Rs.994.76 crore for the BJP.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Uttar Pradesh’s main opposition party, has not declared the names of the contributors as it did not receive donations above Rs. 20,000. The BSP’s total income over the seven-year period is Rs. 484.28 crore.

Although most of the contributions had been through cheque or demand draft, the highest cash submission was of Rs.32.27 lakh by the district president of the SP of Mainpuri district in 2003-04.

In his 2009-10 budget speech, then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had announced a 100% tax deduction for companies and individuals contributing to electoral trusts. Besides bringing in transparency, it also facilitated political parties to receive more donations.

Electoral trusts are created as pass-through vehicles for routing donations to political parties, and are approved by the Central Board of Direct Taxes. Currently, 100% deduction is allowed only if donations are made directly to political parties.

In 2003, India enacted a new law that made private donations to political parties easier. This law allows contributions by private companies to political parties, with a maximum limit of 5% of their profits. It also makes it mandatory for contributions to be made by cheque, and requires that parties audit their annual accounts and maintain a list of donors who give in excess of Rs.20,000, and submit this to the Election Commission.

Remya Nair, Surabhi Agarwal, Moulishree Srivastava and Vidhi Choudhary in New Delhi, Bhuma Shrivastava in Mumbai, and Maulik Pathak in Ahmedabad contributed to this story. 

Live Mint/ The Wall Street Journal, 11 September, 2012, http://www.livemint.com/Politics/ToAUP46XUq9fGKvbiOchuI/Companies-donate-big-to-Congress-BJP.html


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