Between 2016-17 and 2021-22, seven national parties and 24 regional parties received a total donation of ₹ 9,188.35 crore through electoral bonds.
Electoral bonds generated donations worth over ₹ 9,188 crore for all political parties put together till 2021-22, of which the BJP alone accounted for over 57 per cent as against the Congress' 10 per cent, data published by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said.
Between 2016-17 and 2021-22, the last year for which the data is available, seven national parties and 24 regional parties received a total donation of ₹ 9,188.35 crore through electoral bonds.
Of this, the BJP received ₹ 5,272 crore and the Congress received ₹ 952 crore, while the rest went to other parties.
A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bond scheme for political funding of parties.
According to ADR, national parties experienced a significant surge in electoral bond donations, witnessing a 743 per cent increase between FY 2017-18 and FY 2021-22.
In contrast, corporate donations to national parties increased by only 48 per cent during the same period, it said.
State parties also received a substantial proportion of their donations through electoral bonds.
The electoral bonds scheme was introduced in 2017 by way of a Finance Bill and was implemented in 2018. It serves as a means for individuals and entities to make donations to registered political parties while maintaining donor anonymity.
The State Bank of India (SBI) issues the bonds in denominations of ₹ 1,000, ₹ 10,000, ₹ 1 lakh, ₹ 10 lakh, and ₹ 1 crore.
In July this year, the ADR said that more than half of all donations received by political parties between 2016-17 and 2021-22 were through electoral bonds and the BJP received more funds than all other national parties put together.
It said donations worth around ₹ 16,437 crore were received by the seven national parties and 24 state parties between 2016-17 and 2021-22. Of this, ₹ 9,188.35 crore -- around 56 per cent -- were received through electoral bonds.