The total donations of the National parties during FY 2024-25 increased by Rs 4104.285 cr, an increase of 161% from the previous financial year 2023-24.
Donations to the BJP increased from Rs 2,243.947 cr in FY 2023-24 to Rs 6074.015 cr in FY 2024-25, marking a 171% increase. Similarly, donations to the INC rose from Rs 281.48 cr in FY 2023-24 to Rs 517.394 cr in FY 2024-25, reflecting an 84% increase.
As per a report, prepared by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), focuses on donations above Rs 20,000, received by the National political parties during the financial year 2024-25, as per details submitted by the parties to the Election Commission of India (ECI) including national parties like Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Communist Party of India (Marxist), CPI(M) and National People’s Party (NPEP).
In comparison to the previous financial year, donations declared by AAP increased by 244% or Rs 27.044cr, while donations declared by NPEP increased by 1313% or Rs 1.943 cr.
State-wise donations to National Parties, FY 2024-25 revealed that a total of Rs 2639.481 cr was donated to the National Parties from Delhi, followed by Rs 2438.86 cr from
Maharashtra and Rs 309.177 cr from Gujarat.
Total donation of Rs 55000 from 3 donations from the United States (USA) has been made to AAP. A total of Rs 7.684 cr (0.115% of total donations received by the National parties, FY 2024-25) could not be attributed to any State/ Union Territory due to incomplete/undeclared information provided by the parties.
Donors from corporates/business sectors Vs. individual donors
A staggering 3244 donations were made to the National parties by corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 6128.787 cr (92.18% of total donations) while 7900 individual donors donated Rs 505.66 cr (7.61% of total donations) to the parties during FY 2024-25.
Partywise, 2794 donations from corporate/business sectors were made to BJP (Rs 5717.167 cr) while 2627 individual donors donated Rs 345.94 cr to the party during FY 2024-25.
Sameway, INC received a total of Rs 383.8605 cr via 112 donations from corporate/business sectors and Rs 132.3885 cr via 2357 individual donors during FY 2024-25.
BJP (Rs 5717.167 cr) received more than thirteen times the total amount (Rs 411.62 cr) of corporate donations declared by all other National parties for the FY 2024-25.
The top donor to National Parties in 2024-25, the report revealed, was Prudent Electoral Trust, which donated a total of Rs 2413.465 cr to BJP, INC and AAP together and is the top donor to parties that received the maximum donations. The Trust donated Rs 2180.7119 cr to BJP (35.90% of total funds received by the party), Rs 216.335 cr to INC (41.81% of total funds received by the party) and Rs 16.4178 cr to AAP (43.08% of total funds received by the party).
Down the line, the Progressive Electoral Trust donated Rs 834.97 cr from 2 donations, AB General Electoral Trust donated Rs 621 cr through 16 donations, New Democratic Electoral Trust donated Rs 155 cr through 7 donations to BJP and INC and Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd donated Rs 100 cr through 3 donations, beside Rungta Sons Private Limited donated Rs 95 cr through 4 donations to BJP in FY 2024-25.
The report further highlighted that the INC, CPI (M) and BJP submitted their contribution reports after a delay of 23 days, 66 days and 68 days, respectively while 4 National parties, BJP, INC, NPEP and CPI(M) had not declared PAN details of 205 donations through which the parties collected a total of Rs 3.468 cr (0.052% of the total donations declared by National parties).
The National Parties including CPI(M)- Rs 23.90 lakhs, BJP-Rs 8.40 lakhs and INC- Rs 6.50 lakhs had declared Rs 38.80 lakhs from 33 donations having missing/incorrect PAN details.
The BJP declared 1656 donations of Rs 224.652 cr, INC collected 515 donations worth Rs 419.474 cr, AAP collected 549 donations of Rs 31.058 cr, CPI(M) collected 303 donations of Rs 8.312 cr while NPEP collected 17 donations of Rs 1.391 cr having incomplete cheque/DD details where cheque number, bank details on which it was drawn and the date on which the cheque was received/encashed was not provided.
As done for the last 19 years, BSP again declared that the party did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000.
It may be mentioned that the Supreme Court had given a judgment on September 13, 2013 declaring that no part of a candidate’s affidavit should be left blank. Similarly, no part of the Form 24A submitted by political parties providing details of donation above Rs 20,000 should be blank.
All donors who donated a minimum of Rs 20,000 as a single or multiple donations should provide their PAN details. Also, introducing a provision where an individual or a company cannot contribute multiple small donations exceeding a total of Rs 20,000 in a financial year, so that parties are not able to bypass the reporting requirement despite receiving a larger overall sum from the same donor.
The National parties should, ideally, lead by example by filing complete and correct statements of donations to the ECI well in time for public scrutiny so as to encourage financial transparency.
