New Delhi: About 93 per cent of the total voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 received by the six national political parties between 2016-17 and 2017-18 came from corporates and business houses, a report says.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got the major chunk -- Rs 915.59 crore from 1,731 corporate donors from the total Rs 1,059 crore these parties received, reveals the report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Tuesday.
The Congress received Rs 55.36 crore from 151 corporate donors while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) got Rs 7.74 crore from 23 donors.
"During FY 2016-17 and FY 2017-18, BJP's and Congress' voluntary contributions above Rs 20,000 from corporate/business houses is 94 per cent and 81 per cent respectively," said the report.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) got the least corporate donations at 2 per cent. The ADR also highlighted that various sectors of business houses between 2012-13 and 2017-18 donated a total of Rs 1,941.95 crore, or 91.17 per cent of the total contribution from known sources amounting to Rs 2,123 crore.
"National parties have received the maximum corporate donations of Rs 573.18 crore in FY 2014-15 (when the Lok Sabha elections were held), followed by FY 2016-17 with Rs 563.19 crore and FY 2017-18 with Rs 421.99 crore," read the report.
"Between FY 2012-13 and 2017-18, donations from corporates to national parties increased by 414 per cent, with a major drop in the percentage of corporate donations in FY 2015-16."
The donations reduced by 25.07 per cent in 2016-17 and 2017-18, ADR said.
