Political Donations

Experts intrigued by inclusion of electoral bonds in new Income-Tax Bill

Experts are intrigued by the new Income Tax Bill, 2025 retaining provisions related to electoral bonds, which were rendered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court last year, saying it could be because of legislative oversight or the government's intention to bring it back in some other form. Electoral bonds have been mentioned in the new Income Tax Bill's Schedule VIII which deals with 'Income not to be included in the total income of political parties and electoral trusts'. In a judgement passed on February 15 last year, the Supreme Court had scrapped the Centre's electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding, calling it "unconstitutional" as it was "violative" of the right to freedom of speech and expression and right to information. Under the existing Income Tax Act, 1961, donations received from companies and individuals through electoral bonds are exempt in the hands of political parties. The government has brought in a new Income Tax Bill to replace the 64-year old I-T

Greenland approves ban on foreign political donations amid Trump threat

Greenland's parliament passed a bill Tuesday that bans political parties from receiving contributions from foreign or anonymous contributors after President Donald Trump expressed his wish that the United States take over the vast and mineral-rich Arctic island that belongs to Denmark. The bill is aimed at protecting Greenland's political integrity" and will take effect immediately, according to a translation of a parliamentary document in Danish outlining the measure. The bill must be seen in light of the geopolitical interests in Greenland and the current situation where representatives of an allied great power have expressed interest in taking over and controlling Greenland, the document said. Before taking office for his second term on January 20, Trump said he would not rule out the use of military force to seize control of Greenland, calling it vital to US national security. His oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., visited Greenland last month and told citizens: We're going to treat

Printing of 10k electoral bonds worth Rs 1 cr each stopped after SC ruling

Three days before the apex court struck down the electoral bonds scheme, the Finance Ministry had approved the printing of the bonds

Electoral bonds data: Here's a list of the biggest donors and beneficiaries

Lottery firm Future Gaming and Megha Infrastructure were the biggest purchasers of the electoral bonds scheme, while BJP and TMC were the largest beneficiaries

Electoral bonds: BJP received more funds than the next 6 parties combined

The ruling party received Rs 6,060 crore in electoral bonds, constituting 47% of the total donations, followed by TMC Rs 1,609.50 crore (12.6%) and Congress Rs 1,421.9 crore (11.1%)

Electoral bonds: Megha Engineering donates Rs 1,200 cr; 2nd highest overall

Top electoral bonds doors: Everything you need to know about Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd and its subsidiaries that made up the second largest electoral bond donor

Top electoral bond donor: All about Future Gaming & India's 'Lottery King'

Future Gaming emerged as the top electoral bond donor, donating Rs 1,368 crore to political parties between April 2019 and January 2024, in data released by the Election Commission

Megha Engineering, SII, Nippon topped list of Electoral donors in FY23: ADR

Ten corporates donated Rs 332.26 crore, or 90.66% of total donations

Cong collects over Rs 10 cr donation amount under Donate for Desh campaign

Earlier in December, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge launched the crowdfunding campaign 'Donate for Desh' for the party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls

BJP harasses industrialists who want to make donations to Cong: Gehlot

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Monday alleged that the BJP alone takes donations for elections and harasses industrialists who want to donate to Congress. Gehlot also accused the BJP-ruled government at the Centre of misusing central agencies like Enforcement Directorate (ED), Income Tax department and the CBI. "BJP alone takes donations in elections and is not letting others take donations. They harass industrialists who want to donate to Congress," the Chief Minister said addressing a public meeting after visiting an inflation relief camp in Dungarpur. Highlighting the schemes and programmes of his government, Gehlot said that none of the state government schemes were launched with elections in mind. He also requested people to vote for the Congress party in the upcoming Assembly elections so that it can retain power in the state. Gehlot also reiterated his demand for a law on right to social security to be passed at the central government level.

EC asks for reducing anonymous political aids from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,000

Aiming for reforms and transparency in donations received by political parties, the Election Commission has proposed reducing anonymous political donations from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,000

No contribution received, no donations made: Two electoral trusts tell EC

Delhi-based Swadeshi Electoral Trust and Jaybharath Electoral Trust registered in Coimbatore have told the Election Commission that they neither received any contribution nor made any donation to a political party in financial year 2021-22. In their annual reports for FY 2021-22 submitted to the poll panel, the two trusts said they received "nil" contributions from all sources permissible under the income tax law. Hence they made "nil" donations to any political party in the fiscal. Electoral trusts have to submit their contribution reports to the EC containing details of contributions received and disbursed by them to political parties in the interest of transparency.

Over 55% donations to regional parties from 'unknown' sources, shows data

The total income of 25 regional political parties in FY20 was Rs 803.24 crore

National parties collected Rs 3,370 cr from unknown sources in 2019-20: ADR

National parties collected Rs 3,377.41 crore from unknown sources in the 2019-20 financial year, which was 70.98% of the total income of these parties, according to Association for Democratic Reforms

US: Companies slash donations to politicians after Trump election challenge

The money donated during the month was less than one-tenth the roughly $190,000 the 10 company PACs gave candidates in January 2017

Companies donated $170 million to GOP election objectors: Report

Many companies have since said they will avoid making donations to members of the House and Senate who voted to overturn Biden's win

No public interest in disclosing details of political parties' donors: CIC

CIC rejected a plea for making the details public

BJP received Rs 742 cr in donations in 2018-19, Congress got Rs 148 cr: ADR

Donations for the BJP increased from Rs 437.04 crore during 2017-18 to Rs 742.15 crore during 2018-19, a rise of 70 per cent, the ADR said

BJP to accept donations digitally on Upadhyay's death anniversary

In a letter to party leaders, BJP has asked them to hold programmes on the life of Upadhaya at booth level

Electoral bonds cleaned political donation system; ain't a scam: SC Garg

In case a political party receives a political donation in cash primarily, then that might actually indicate a scam, he stated