Donations To National Parties Lowered By Over 41%, Amounting To Rs 420 Crore In FY 2020-21: Report

The donations received by the recognised national parties during the financial year 2020-21 have decreased by more than ₹420 crores, a significant drop of 41.49 per cent from the last fiscal year, a poll reform advocacy group revealed on Thursday, July 14.

The fall in donations could be because of the COVID-19 pandemic, whose first wave began around the March 2020 end, just before the commencement of the financial year, triggering a nationwide lockdown.r

Party-Wise Lowering In Donations

The donations to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) sank from ₹785.77 crores during FY 2019-20 to ₹477.54 crores during FY 2020-21, a decline of 39.23 per cent. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) stated that BJP's donations had risen by 5.88 per cent during FY 2019-20, compared to FY 2018-19.

The donations to the Indian National Congress sank from ₹139.016 crores during FY 2019-20 to ₹74.524 crores during FY 2020-21, a decline of 46.39 per cent. The ADR stated that Congress' donations had fallen by 6.44 per cent between FY 2018-2019 and FY 2019-20.

State-Wise Tally Of Donations

A total of more than ₹246 crores was donated to the national parties from the national capital, Delhi, followed by ₹71.68 crores from Maharashtra and over ₹47 crores from Gujarat, reported The Print.

The donations of ₹37.912 crores (6.39 per cent of the total received by the national parties in FY 2020-21) could not be attributed to any state of union territory due to insufficient or undeclared information provided by the parties.

BJP, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), Trinamool Congress (TMC), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and National People's Party (NPP) are the eight recognised national parties in India.

Who Made How Much Donation?

The corporate and the business sector made 1,398 donations to the national parties, which amounted to ₹480.655 crores, more than 80 per cent of the total contributions. At the same time, 2,258 individual donors donated ₹111.65 crores, 18.804 per cent of the aggregate, to these parties during FY 2020-21.

More than 1,100 donations from the corporate and business sector were made to the BJP, which amounted to ₹416.794 crores, while 1,071 individual donors donated ₹60.37 crores to the party during FY 2020-21.

At least 146 donations from the corporate sector were made to Congress, which amounted to ₹35.89 crores, while 931 individual donors donated ₹38.634 crores to the party during FY 2020-21.

BSP declared it did not receive any donations over ₹20,000 during FY 2020-21, as it has been declaring for the last 15 years, reported NDTV.

The ADR said the due date for submission of contribution reports by the parties was September 30, 2021. Only BSP submitted its contribution report on time, while CPI, BJP, Congress, NPP, CPI-M, TMC, and NCP submitted theirs after a delay of 178, 164, 161, 137, 136, 117, and 10 days, respectively.

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