Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Date: 24th Feb, ';15

Analysis of Donations Received by Bharatiya Janata Party

- FY 2013-14

This report, prepared by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW), focuses on donations received by the National Political Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, above Rs 20,000, during the Financial Year 2013-14, as submitted by BJP to the Election Commission of India (ECI) on 20^th Dec,’14. This report should be read in conjunction with the analysis of donations for the FY 2013-14 declared by the other National Parties (less BJP) which was released by ADR earlier. The report can be accessed here.

Executive Summary

The executive summary below lists the key observations drawn from the report:

I. Submission of contribution report by BJP to the ECI:

a. Political parties were required to submit their contributions report for FY 2013-14 to the ECI before the due date (i.e. 31^st October, 2014).

b. The ECI received the donations report of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on 20^th December, 2014.

c. ECI received the donations report of BSP on 13^th Sept,’14, of NCP on 17^th Sept,’14, of CPI on 23^rd Sept,’14 and of CPM and INC on 30^th Sept,’14.

II. Number of donors contributing above Rs 20,000 to National Parties from all over India (FY 2013-14)

a. The total amount of donations above Rs 20,000 received by National Political Parties during FY 2013-14 was calculated from the donations report submitted to the Election Commission annually.

b. The total amount of donations above Rs 20,000 declared by the National Parties was Rs. 247.79 crores, from 2361 donations. BSP declared that the party received no donations above Rs 20,000.

c. The donations declared by BJP amounts to 69% of the total donations declared by all the National Parties together.

d. On an average, BJP received Rs 13.19 lakhs per unique donor*, INC received Rs 11.70 lakhs per unique donor, NCP: Rs 1 crore, CPI: Rs 3.23 lakhs and CPM: Rs 4.03 lakhs per unique donor.

Party	Total number of donations	Total number of unique donors (a)	Total amount contributed (b)	Average amount of donation per unique donor (b/a)
BJP	1480	1295	Rs 1,70,86,36,182 (~Rs 170.86 crores)	Rs 13,19,410 (~Rs 13.19 lakhs)
INC	743	509	Rs 59,58,37,728 (~Rs 59.58 crores)	Rs 11,70,605 (~ Rs 11.70 lakhs)
NCP	15	14	Rs 14,02,00,000 (~Rs 14.02 crores)	Rs 1,00,14,286 (~ Rs 1 crore)
CPI	53	38	Rs 1,22,81,544 (~Rs 1.22 crores)	Rs 3,23,199 (~ Rs 3.23 lakhs)
CPM	70	52	Rs 2,09,74,666 (~Rs 2.09 crores)	Rs 4,03,359 (~ Rs 4.03 lakhs)
Total	2361	1908	Rs 247.79 crores	Rs 12.98 lakhs

*Unique donor: A donor who might or might not have made multiple donations during FY 2013-14

III. Comparison of donations received by National Parties during FY 2012-13 and FY 2013-14

a. The total donations of BJP, INC, NCP and CPI during FY 2013-14 showed an increase of 158%, from the previous financial year, 2012-13.

b. The total donations of BJP during FY 2013-14 increased by Rs 87.67 crores from Rs 83.19 crores during FY 2012-13 to Rs 170.86 crores during FY 2013-14 (105% increase).

c. Donations declared by BJP during FY 2013-14 is more than twice the aggregate declared by the INC, NCP, CPI and CPM during the same year.

IV. Donations to BJP during FY 2013-14

a. BJP received maximum donations of Rs 55.86 crores from 32 donors who donated between Rs 1 crore and Rs 10 crores.

V. Top 3 donors to BJP

a. Bharti Group’s Satya Electoral Trust donated the maximum amount of Rs 41.37 crores to BJP from 3 donations followed by Sterlite Industries India Ltd which donated Rs 15 crores from 4 donations and Cairn India Ltd. which donated Rs 7.50 crores from 2 donations to the party. It is to be noted that none of the above 3 donors donated toBJP during FY 2012-13.

b. Bharti Group’s Satya Electoral Trust was also the top donor to INC, contributing Rs 36.50 crores to the party during FY 2013-14.

c. Satya Electoral Trust made the maximum contribution of Rs 4 crores to NCP too during FY 2013-14.

VI. Donors from Corporates/ business sectors Vs. Individual donors

a. 92% of donations to BJP above Rs 20,000 were from corporate houses/ business sector. A total of 704 donations from corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 157.84 crores were made to BJP

b. 8% of donations to BJP above Rs 20,000 were made by individuals. 772 individual donors donated a total ofRs 12.99 crores to the party during FY 2013-14.

c. Four donations declared by BJP contained details of only the amount donated by the donor but not the details of the donors. The total donations from such donors amounted to Rs 2.75 lakhs (0.02% of total donations).

VII. State-wise donations to National Parties

a. A total of Rs 45.21 crores was donated to BJP from 119 donations from Delhi by both corporates and individuals together. It is to be noted that INC received maximum donations from Delhi (Rs 39.05 crores), as did CPI (Rs 54.6 lakhs) and CPM (Rs 1.88 crores) during FY 2013-14.

b. Donations to BJP from Gujarat amounted to Rs 23.25 crores followed by 22.24 crores from Maharashtra.

c. It is to be noted that 3 donations from individuals from Singapore was made to BJP, amounting to a total of Rs 8.50 lakhs. These were the only declared donations from outside India.

S No.	Name	Complete address of the contributing person/company	PAN	Amount of contribution (Rs.)	Mode of contribution (Cheque/ DD/ cash/RTGS/others)	Details of contribution
1	Ashish Todi	Singapore	(Not given)	5,00,000	804340	ICICI Bank
2	Vikash Dhanuka	Singapore	(Not given)	2,50,000	804341	ICICI Bank
3	Pulak Chandan Prasad	Singapore	(Not given)	1,00,000	868797	Citi Bank
Total				Rs 8.50 lakhs

VIII. Discrepancy in disclosure of information in the donations report

Cheque/DD numbers of 3 pairs of donors are identical. The donations made by A to Z Online Services Pvt. Ltd. (Rs 84 lakhs) and Jumana Goolam Vahanvati (Rs 20 lakhs) was through the same cheque number (957). Similarly, the donations made by Ravi Developers (Rs 7.50 lakhs) and Ravi Development (Rs 7.50 lakhs) was through the same cheque number (7939569). Also, the two donations made by Praveen Kumar of Rs 5 lakhs each was through the same cheque number (826592). It is to be noted that the PAN details of the first four donors was not declared in the contributions report of the party.

The contribution statement says that ‘Bharatiya Janata Party’ donated Rs 1 lakh while ‘BJP Ward 66’ donated Rs 30,000 to the party. Also, 4 donors whose complete name, address and PAN details are unavailable donated a total of Rs 2.75 lakhs to the party during FY 2013-14.

Discrepancy in disclosure of information in the donations report
S. No.	Name	Complete address of the contributing person/company	PAN	Amount of contribution (Rs.)	Mode of contribution (Cheque/ DD/ cash/RTGS/others)	Details of contribution
1	A to Z Online Services Pvt. Ltd.	Tech Park on Tower E, Airport Road, Yerwada, Pune- 411006	Not given	8,400,000	957	HDFC Bank, Pune- 411001 Branch
2	Jumana Goolam Vahanvati	21, Buckley Court, Nathalal Parekh Marg, Colaba, Mumbai- 400039	Not given	2,000,000	957	HDFC Bank, Fort Branch
3	Ravi Developers	(Not provided by BJP)	Not given	750,000	7939569	Punjab National Bank, Kandivali(W) Branch
4	Ravi Development	(Not provided by BJP)	Not given	750,000	7939569	Punjab National Bank, Kandivali(W) Branch
5	Praveen Kumar	(Not provided by BJP)	Given	500,000	826592
6	Praveen Kumar	(Not provided by BJP)	Given	500,000	826592

Other discrepancies in declaration of donations by BJP
S. No.	Name	Complete address of the contributing person/company	PAN	Amount of contribution (Rs.)	Mode of contribution (Cheque/ DD/ cash/RTGS/others)	Details of contribution
7	Bharatiya Janata Party	(Not provided by BJP)	Not given	100,000	5430	Patan Co-Op Bank, Goregaon(W) Branch
8	BJP Ward 66	(Not provided by BJP)	Not given	30,000	0 92225	Dattatray Bank, Jogeshwari (E ) Br.
9	V.V	(Not provided by BJP)	Not given	100,000		Cash
10	(Not provided by BJP)	(Not provided by BJP)	Not given	100,000	20285	Not given
11	Uma Palace	(Not provided by BJP)	Not given	50,000	00 7724	ICICI Bank , Chembur Branch
12	(Not provided by BJP)	Sean Adevent 2nd Floor Alfran Plaza Opposite Dada Vaidya Hospital Panjim Goa-403001	Given	25,000	456063	Indian Overseas Bank Panaji

Recommendations of ADR

a. The Supreme Court gave 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 donations above Rs 20,000 should be blank.

b. There is ambiguity in cash donations from 17 donors declared by BJP which amounted to Rs 24.77 lakhs in FY 2013-14. The party has not included any remarks though it is part of the prescribed format of the Election Commission of India.Thus, there is a need for clarity in large amounts of cash donations by individuals/ business houses.

c. A total of Rs 60.78 crores (36%) was declared as donations by BJP from donors whose addresses were not declared. Such contributions were made through 923 donations without providing the details of addresses of the donors. Due to lack of complete information about the donors, the state from which the donations were made and the details of their business houses could not be verified. Thus, it should be made mandatory to provide complete information in the donations report of parties.

d. Full details of all donors should be made available for public scrutiny under the RTI. Some countries where this is done include Bhutan, Nepal, Germany, France, Italy, Brazil, Bulgaria, the US and Japan. In none of these countries is it possible for 75% of the source of funds to be unknown, but at present it is so in India.

e. The National and regional political parties must provide all information on their finances under the Right to Information Act. This will go a long way to strengthen political parties, elections and democracy. For more information, please refer tohttp://adrindia.org/content/political-parties-unitedly-boycott-cic-hearing-non-compliance-political-parties-under-rti

For information on cash donations to BJP and donors who donated above Rs 20,000 without PAN and complete information on donations declared by BJP for FY 2013-14, please refer to the attached report.

Contacts

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Email: adr@adrindia.org

Maj Gen Anil Verma (Retd.)

Head

National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms

+91 8826479910

anilverma@adrindia.org

Prof Jagdeep Chhokar

IIM Ahmedabad (Retd)

Founder Member National Election Watch, Association for Democratic