The sources of funds of at least 45 companies that donated electoral bonds to various political parties (and whose financials could be matched with data from the CMIE Prowess IQ Database) are found to be suspect based on a joint analysis by The Hindu and an independent research team. These 45 companies are subdivided into four categories (A, B, C & D).
Thirty-three companies donated an aggregate sum of ₹576.2 crore in EBs, out of which ₹434.2 crore (nearly 75%) was encashed by the BJP. These companies had negative or near zero profit after tax in aggregate over seven years, from 2016-17 to 2022-23. The aggregate net losses of these 33 companies were over ₹1 lakh crore. 16 out of these 33 companies (category A) paid zero or negative direct taxes in aggregate. That these loss-making companies made such substantial donations indicates they could be acting as fronts for other firms or have misreported their profits and losses — raising the possibility of money laundering.
Electoral bonds data | Many pharma companies that bought electoral bonds faced regulatory actions
