Reporting a consistent rise after 2020-21, BJP’s earnings from donations of over Rs 20,000 have reached nearly Rs 2 crore per day on an average during the last financial year, much more than the contribution of all other national parties combine. The Congress received the second highest contribution of Rs 21 lakh per day on an average, official numbers analysed by News18 shows.
All recognised political parties have to declare the donations received above Rs 20,000 to the Election Commission annually. At present, there are six national parties – Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), BJP, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and National People’s Party (NPP).
So far, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), CPI, and All India Trinamool Congress (AITC/TMC) were also national parties but they lost their status in April 2023. AAP was the latest addition to the list.
The collective contribution to national parties stood at Rs 850 crore, a massive part of this was for the BJP alone at Rs 719.83 crore. The collective earning of other national parties was just Rs 130.51 crore. The Congress received Rs 79.92 crore in contributions over Rs 20,000 while the AAP was at the third position with Rs 37.1 crore during 2022-23.
Between 2017-18 and 2022-23, BJP’s daily average contribution stood at Rs 1.72 crore while that of Congress was Rs 0.26 crore. In terms of absolute amount, it stood at Rs 3,776.86 crore for the BJP while it was Rs 564.14 crore for the Congress. These national parties have collected Rs 4,550.95 crore since 2017-18.
Compared to the last year, only BJP and NPP reported a jump in contribution while Congress, AAP and CPI-M have reported a significant drop.
Among all these national parties, the BSP is usually the first to file its contribution report with the EC. Mayawati’s party has declared that it did not receive any funds in excess of Rs 20,000 from individual donors and entities in 2022-23.
The Rs 20,000-figure is important because for registered political parties to be eligible for exemption from income tax, they are required to maintain and share records of each contribution of more than Rs 20,000, including name and address of the contributor/donor unless the contribution is made by electoral bond. The BSP had been saying that it only gets funds from people with small earnings.
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