Amit Shah and Narendra Modi led BJP emerged as the richest national party with a total income of Rs Rs 532.27 Crore, in the financial year 2016-17, as per the report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on 30 May 2018.

The report was prepared on 7 national parties that included Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC).

The report prepared by ADR and National Election Watch (NEW), focuses on donations received by the National Political Parties, above Rs 20,000, during the Financial Year 2016-17, as submitted by the parties to the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The total donations (above Rs 20,000) declared by the National Parties was Rs. 589.38 cr, from 2123 donations. Of these a total of Rs 532.27 cr was declared by BJP from 1194 donations while INC declared receiving Rs 41.90 cr from 599 donations. The donations declared by BJP is more than nine times the aggregate declared by INC, NCP, CPI, CPM and AITC for the same period.

BSP declared that the party did not receive any donations above Rs 20,000 during FY 2016-17, as it has been declaring for the past 11 years.The report also brings a comparison of donations received by National Parties during FY 2015-16 and FY 2016-17. It brings some startling facts.

Donations to BJP increased from Rs 76.85 cr during FY 2015-16 to Rs 532.27 cr during FY 2016-17 which is 593% increase, while NCP has declared an increase of 793%, from Rs 71 lakhs in FY 2015-16 to Rs 6.34 cr in FY 2016-17.

Similarly, donations to AITC increased by 231%, CPM and INC have declared increase of 190% and 105% respectively as per their donation reports for FY- 2015-16 and 2016-17, while that of CPI decreased by 9%.

The report brought the sources of the income of these political parties for the FY 2016-17. Total income of National Parties (as per their audit reports) for FY 2016-17 stood at Rs 1559.17 cr. Total income of the National Parties from known donors was Rs 589.38 cr,

 Similarly as per the details of unknown sources of income as declared by the parties in their IT Returns maximum funds were collected under “Voluntary Contributions” by BJP during FY 2016-17. A total of Rs 464.84 cr was collected under this head which formed 99.98% of the total income from unknown sources of BJP.

The most preferred unknown source of funding for INC was “Sale of coupons” under the party collected a total of Rs 115.64 cr which formed 91.69% of the party’s total income from unknown sources during FY 2016-17.

Amongst the state-wise donations to National Parties – by cash, cheque/ DD, bank transfers a total of Rs 290.90 cr was donated to the National Parties from Delhi, followed by Rs 112.31 cr from Maharashtra and Rs 20.22 cr from Uttar Pradesh.

Huge donations also came from donors from Corporates/ business sectors Vs. Individual donors. Around 708 donations to the National Parties were made by corporate/business sectors amounting to Rs 563.24 cr (95.56% of total donations) while 1354 individual donors donated Rs 25.07 cr (4.25% of total donations) to the parties during FY 2016-17.

BJP also topped the tally with 531 donations from corporate/business sectors and collected Rs 515.43 cr and while 663 individual donors donated Rs 16.82 cr to the party during FY 2016-17.  In contrast, INC received a total of Rs 36.06 cr via 98 donations from corporate/business sectors and Rs 5.84 cr via 501 individual donors during FY 2016-17.

In the top donors’ category to National Parties, in the FY 2016-17  Satya Electoral Trust donated a total of Rs 265.12 cr to BJP and INC and is one of the top 2 donors to the two parties. The Trust donated Rs 251.22 cr to BJP (94.76% of total funds received by the party) and Rs 13.90 cr to INC (5.24% of total funds received by the party).

NCP received Rs 2 cr donations from B.G. Shirke Construction Technology Pvt. Ltd. and Rs 1.10 cr from A.N. Enterprises Infra Services Pvt. Ltd – the report said.