The donations that recognised national parties received during financial year 2020-21 decreased by over ₹420 crore, a sharp fall of 41.49% from the previous fiscal, a poll reform advocacy group said on Thursday.
The first wave of Covid started around the end of March 2020, just before the start of the financial year, triggering lockdowns across the country.
Donations to the BJP decreased from ₹785.77 crore during FY 2019-20 to ₹477.54 crore during FY 2020-21 —a fall of 39.23%. The party's donations had increased by 5.88% during FY 2019-20 in comparison to FY 2018-19, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a statement.
The donations received by Congress plunged from ₹139.016 crore during FY 2019-20 to ₹74.524 crore during FY 2020-21 -- a reduction of 46.39%.
Its donations had decreased by 6.44% between FY 2018-19 and FY 2019-20, the statement said.
A total of over ₹246 crore was donated to the national parties from Delhi, followed by ₹ 71.68 crore from Maharashtra and over ₹47 crore from Gujarat.
Donations totalling ₹37.912 crore (6.39% of the aggregate received by the national parties in FY 2020-21) could not be attributed to any State or union territory due to incomplete or undeclared information provided by the parties, it said.
BJP, BSP, Congress, CPI, CPI-M, TMC, NCP and National People's Party are the eight recognised national parties.
The corporate and the business sector made 1,398 donations to the national parties amounting to ₹480.655 crore —over 80% of the total donations —while 2,258 individual donors contributed ₹111.65 crore or 18.804% of the total to these parties during FY 2020-21.
Over 1,100 donations from corporate and business sector were made to the BJP (₹416.794 crore), while 1,071 individual donors gave ₹60.37 crore to the party during FY 2020-21.
Congress received a total of ₹35.89 crore through 146 donations from the corporate sector and ₹38.634 crore via 931 individual donors during FY 2020-21.
