Income of National Parties soars in 2018-19, thanks to Electoral Bonds
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 11, 2020
Access here Comprehensive Data on Electoral Bonds (as of February 2024)
The income of a national party crossed ₹ 2000 crores for the first time in 2018-19. BJP declared an income of ₹ 2410 crores in 2018-19, more than twice its income in 2017-18. Even Congress’s income in 2018-19 was ₹ 918 crores,  thanks mostly to Electoral Bonds.
Section 29C of  ‘Representation of the People Act 1951’,states that every political party which is registered under Section 29 A isrequired to submit the following to the Election Commission of India (ECI)every year.
In an earlier
story on Factly, the delay in submitting the AARs by various politicalparties, especially the National parties was highlighted. At the time of theearlier story in November 2019, only 3 out of the 7 National parties  i.e. Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Partyand CPI(M) had submitted their AARs with only Trinamool Congress submittingbefore the cut-off date.
The twolargest National parties of BJP & INC along with CPI have submitted thereports recently and they were uploaded on the ECI on 09 January 2020. Theother national party, which is NCP, is yet to submit if one goes by ECI’sdisclosure.
On theother hand, CRs have already been submitted by all the National parties.
BJP’s
Income in 2018-19 more than doubled, most coming from Electoral Bonds
As per the Annual Audit report submitted by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the party’s income in 2018-19 was to the tune of ₹ 2,410 crores while its income during the previous year i.e. 2017-18 was ₹1,027 crores. In other words, income has more than doubled. This is most likely because of 2019 being an election year.
Contributionsform the major share of BJP’s income in both 2017-18 & 2018-19. Thesubstantial increase in 2018-19 can also be attributed to the increase incontributions through various means, especially via electoral bonds. In2018-19, BJP received ₹ 2,352 crores throughvoluntary contributions while it was ₹ 989.7crores in 2017-18.
Substantialshare of BJP’s income also came through interest from Banks, which has alsoincreased over the previous year. Earlier it was ₹ 31.2 crores in 2017-18, which increased to 53.92 crores for 2018-19.
Voluntarycontributions accounted for 97.7% of BJP’s total income in 2018-19. Similarly,in 2017-18, they made up 96.3% the party’s income.
Thevariance in the two years has been with the share of Electoral bonds. In theprevious year i.e. 2017-18, the amount received via Electoral bonds was around ₹ 210 crores which constituted 21% of the voluntary contributions. In thatyear, the ‘Other contributions’ made up for a major chunk of 72%.
However, in 2018-19,  the total amount of voluntary contributions received via Electoral bonds has not only increased but also constituted the major share. A total of ₹ 1450.89 crores were received through Electoral bonds which is nearly 7 times the amount of the previous year. Electoral bonds formed 61% of the total voluntary contributions i.e. nearly 3 times increase in the share compared to 2017-18.
In termsof the BJP’s total income in 2018-19, electoral bonds alone constituted 60.2%of the total income, whereas in the previous year, it was only 20.4%.
More than
four-fold increase in Income earned by INC in 2018-19 but significantly less
than BJP
IndianNational Congress’s income touched ₹ 918.03crores in 2018-19 as per the Audit
Report submitted by them. This is more than a four-fold increase in the incomecompared to 2017-18 when INC’s declared income was ₹199.15 crores.
Like inthe case of BJP, the increase could be due to Lok Sabha general elections in 2019.However, compared to BJP’s income, the income as declared by INC  in 2018-19 is significantly less, in fact lessthan 40% of the BJP’s income in 2018-19.
A major reasonfor the increase in Congress’s income during 2018-19 is due to the increase inthe Donations and Contributions. In 2017-18, the contributions were only ₹ 32.45 crores which increased significantly to ₹551.55 crores in 2018-19.
Collectionby ‘Issuing Coupons’ was the highest source of revenue in 2017-18 with ₹ 110.37 crores, which increased to ₹ 322.59 crores  in 2018-19. This stillforms a significant part of the total income declared by Congress.
As highlighted earlier, the  increase in the income of INC in 2018-19 is due to the increase in ‘Donations and Contributions’. Of these donations and contributions, significant portion belongs to electoral bonds. Electoral bonds received by INC in 2018-19 amounted to ₹ 383.26 crores whereas it was only ₹ 5 crores in 2017-18.  Electoral bonds accounted for 41.7% of the total income earned by INC in 2018-19, while it was only 2.5% of the income in 2017-18.
INC has also received a higher contribution in 2018-19 through Electoral Trust & Foundation, with ₹ 94.59 crores, while it was only ₹ 4 crores in 2017-18.
Major
share of CPI’s Income in 2018-19 is through Donations and Contributions
Communist
Party of India declared an income of ₹ 7.15 crores in 2018-19 ofwhich ₹ 4.08 crores were throughDonations and Contributions.
In 2017-18,the major portion of the income was through Fees and Subscriptions. Even though the amount received throughFees & Subscription increased in 2018-19 , it is lesser than the fundsreceived through Donations & Contributions.
As perthe Audit report submitted by CPI, there was no mention of any income receivedthrough electoral bonds.
Nearly
57% of the Electoral Bonds issued in 2018-19 were received by BJP
Earlier, Factlydid a detailed story aboutElectoral Bonds issued till October 2019. Out of more than ₹ 6,000 crores worth of Electoral Bonds sold so far, nearly ₹ 2,551 crores were sold in 2018-19.
Of theones sold in 2018-19, BJP received the highest amount of electoral bonds amountingto ₹1450.89 crores i.e. 56.9% of the total.  The Congress received nearly ₹ 383.3 crores which is 15% of the total.
Among theregional parties BJD and TRS received the highest amount of Electoral Bondswith ₹ 213.5 crores and ₹141.5 crores respectively. Nearly ₹128.76 crores are still not accounted for, the details of which will beknown only after NCP ( the remaining national party) and the remaining state-recognised parties such as TDP submit the Audit reports.
Most of
the Political parties gained from Electoral Bonds in 2018-19, with BJP being
the biggest beneficiary.
The Auditreports submitted by BJP and INC show that both the national parties havereceived higher amount of funding in 2018-19 than the previous year, mostlythrough the electoral Bonds. However, BJP has received more than 3 times theamount of the second highest beneficiary of Electoral bonds i.e. INC. Even interms of proportion, share of electoral bonds in BJP’s income is higher than inthe case of Congress.