All political parties put together received more than Rs 12,000 crore till last fiscal since the introduction of the now-annulled electoral bond scheme in 2018, of which the ruling BJP got nearly 55 per cent or Rs 6,565 crore, according to the data available with Election Commission and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
"The e-donations can be made from any of SBI ATMs across the country. Money can be easily transferred from any account to the Mata Vaishnodevi account," Chief Manager, SBI, Chand Tickoo said.
'Isn't it obvious? Do you have a doubt? There is so much data that shows that there is quid pro quo.' 'There are many instances of donations being given after the raids, donations being given before the award of a contract and many other permutations and combinations.'
Future Gaming of lottery king Santiago Martin was the biggest purchaser of electoral bonds at Rs 1,368 crore, of which nearly 37 percent went to the DMK.
There is a perk for donating to parties. An individual who makes an eligible donation is entitled to get 100% tax deduction under Section 80GGC of the Income Tax Act.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, which was hearing an application filed by the Election Commission (EC) seeking a modification of the operative portion of its March 11 order in the electoral bonds case, directed its registrar (judicial) to ensure that the data filed earlier by the poll panel before it in a sealed cover be scanned and digitised.
The State Bank of India told the Supreme Court on Thursday it has provided all details of the electoral bonds in its possession to the Election Commission.
In a report submitted to the Election Commission, the department, which has been investigating the donations list of the party for the last over an year, has said that the records of donations made to the AAP during 2013-14 and 2014-15 had "factual discrepancies" and did not match with the actual funds received by it from various donors.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said political parties will be entitled to receive donations by cheque or digital mode from their donors.
Ahead of Delhi assembly elections, Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party has collected around Rs 19 crore as donations from cross section of people, most of them are the first-time donors to a political party.
'However, to establish a quid pro quo, one can potentially see several things, like whether they got any benefits from the party that they gave money to. That is something that people (of India) will gauge. But to finally establish that there was money paid as consideration, it would require an investigation, a proper investigation, to be able to come up with such conclusions.'
Donations to NGOs and charitable institutes are likely to be exempted from fringe benefit tax, a leading member of chartered accountants body ICAI said on Saturday.\n
'Who has given how much money to which party, the people of India must know this fact.'
'Citizens have given money to PM-CARES, so they have the right to know what has happened to their money.'
Did Jeff Bezos decide against endorsing Harris because it would hurt his business interests? Only God and Bezos know, and neither of them are talking, notes Prem Panicker.
The Congress on Wednesday questioned the Election Commission's move to get a post on electoral bonds scheme deleted from social media platform X and said that the issue raised in the post makes the government 'extremely uncomfortable'.
Ramesh alleged that through the "electoral bonds scam", the Bharatiya Janata Party has collected Rs 8,200 crore and used the route of "pre-paid, post-paid, post-raid bribes and shell companies".
Star Indian sprinter Hima Das has donated her one month's salary to the Assam government to help the state combat the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic. Das, an Asian Games gold-medallist besides being an under-20 World champion in 400m, is employed with PSU major Indian Oil as an HR officer in Guwahati.
Fifty other entities, including the Congress, have been served notices
Rescue teams on Friday used GPS coordinates from aerial drone pictures and cell phones, including the last location of people who lived in the landslides-hit areas of Wayanad to help locate survivors, amidst accelerated search operations after the completion of the 190-foot-long Bailey bridge by the Army.
In its verdict last month, the top court directed the SBI to furnish the details to the Election Commission (EC) by March 6.
Government think tank Niti Aayog has suggested 100 per cent income tax exemption for donations and provision of working capital loans with lower interest rates for not-for-profit hospitals to strengthen healthcare services in India. In a report titled 'Not-for-Profit Hospital Model in India', the Aayog also pitched for involving high performing hospitals in public private partnership (PPP) models for managing primary health care (PHCs), operations of government facilities and PSU hospitals. "Income-tax exemption could be increased from the current 50 per cent exemption to 100 per cent exemption for philanthropy toward the identified not-for-profit hospitals.
Noting that he fully respects the Supreme Court order on electoral bonds, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said the scheme was introduced to end black money in politics and added that it should have been improved rather than scrapped.
'I tried a public donation drive to support my campaign for progressive politics without much success so far. I also tried to cut down the projected campaign spending to the minimum'
Aditya Birla Group on Friday said it donated funds to political outfits through a trust for around 15 years and that these were done within permissible limits of the country's laws.
MARD has lost deposits on all seats it has contested so far since it was formed in 2018 but its leaders say they are undeterred by elections losses.
Despite the objections raised by Reserve Bank of India and Election Commission, India's politics has been funded anonymously and it is time to end this, asserts Aakar Patel.
The "unknown" sources are income declared in the annual audit report by these parties but without giving the source of income, according to the ADR.
Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency to political funding.
Personal health and hygiene are a pre-requisite for donating blood.
The income-tax (I-T) authorities have tightened disclosure norms for charitable trusts. They now have to declare the nature of their activities from October 1 for tax purposes. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified changes in reporting rules where the charitable institutions have to mention whether the activities undertaken are charitable, religious, or both to claim tax benefits.
The Hathras SP said the investigation also revealed that some political parties had contacted him some time back.
The opposition's Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) will hold a 'maha rally' at Delhi's Ramlila Maidan on March 31 to safeguard the country's interests and democracy, Aam Aadmi Party leader Gopal Rai said on Sunday.
The Centre told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that almost every country, including India, was grappling with the problem of use of black money in elections and the electoral bonds scheme was a "conscious attempt" to eradicate the menace of "unclean money" in the poll process.
'My suspicion is that most of the bonds were given by companies who had got contracts or who had benefited from policy changes by the government.'
The government on Friday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation into transfer of funds by United States-based Ford Foundation to Sabrang Communication and Publishing Pvt Limited, with which social activist Teesta Stelvad is associated, allegedly in violation of rules and froze a bank account of the firm.
The fund generated a lot of interest immediately after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced its formation of the fund in the last week of March after the COVID-19 outbreak and appealed for donations, prompting several private firms, government bodies and individuals, including celebrities, to donate money.
'It's not really going to bring about purity in the election process.'
The "opaque" electoral bonds scheme for funding political parties will "destroy democracy" as it promotes corruption and does not allow a level playing field between the ruling and opposition parties, the petitioners challenging the validity of the scheme told the Supreme Court, which on Tuesday observed election funding was a "complicated issue".
The electoral bonds scheme for funding political parties should not become a tool for "legitimisation of quid pro quo" between power centres and people who are benefactors of that power, the Supreme Court said on Thursday as it underscored the need for reducing the cash component in the electoral process.
