Corporates paid Rs.379 crore to parties: Report

The corporate sector contributed around Rs.378.89 crore during the last eight years to political parties, an election research report revealed Wednesday.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) study said that out of Rs.435.87 crore collected by national parties between 2004-05 and 2011-12, Rs.378.89 crore was donated by corporates and business houses.

Interestingly, the report showed that corporate financial contribution to national parties during the period under review constituted 87 percent of the known sources of donation.

The report said BJP received the maximum donation of Rs.192.47 crore from 1,334 corporates during the period.

BJP was followed by the Indian National Congress (INC) which received a total of Rs.172.25 crore from 418 donors from corporate sector.

"Maximum number of donations was made by the manufacturing sector (595 donors contributing Rs.99.71 crore), followed by 340 donors from the real estate sector (Rs. 24.10 crore)," the report said, adding that the least number of donations was made by hospitals, shipping, transport and communication sectors.

The report added that the General Electoral Trust of the Aditya Birla Group was the top corporate donor to the INC and the BJP.

The group contributed Rs.36.41 crore to INC, followed by a donation of Rs.26.57 crore to the BJP.

Other major contributors included Torrent Power which shelled out Rs.11.85 crore to INC and Rs.13 crore to BJP.

"CPI received a total of Rs.11 lakh from 13 corporate donors while CPI-M received a total of Rs.1.78 crore from 108 business houses," the report said.

Sector-wise, INC received maximum contributions from trusts and group of companies at Rs.70.28 crore, while BJP received maximum donations from manufacturing sector at Rs.58.18 crore, followed by power and oil industries at Rs.17.06 crore.