Press Release

Date: 20^th April, 2015

Report on Register of Members’ Interest of Rajya Sabha MPs

The Register of Members’ Interest, containing details of Rajya Sabha MPs was procured by ADR and NEW through an RTI application. This report analyses the declaration of pecuniary interests of 211 sitting MPs of Rajya Sabha. The report does not go into investigative analysis regarding the business/pecuniary interests of the MPs or whether they are in conflict with the committees they are currently a part of.

Rajya Sabha members are required to mention the following types of pecuniary interests:

1.      Remunerative Directorship.

2.      Regular Remunerative Activity.

3.      Shareholding of a Controlling Nature.

4.      Paid Consultancy.

5.      Professional Engagement

Recommendations of ADR and NEW:

• A Register of Pecuniary Interests of members of the Lok Sabha should be maintained by the Lok Sabha Secretariat and made available in the public domain.

• There should be a mechanism for thorough scrutiny and verification into the authenticity of the declarations of financial interest made by members on the ‘form’ of pecuniary interest. 
• The pecuniary details provided in the Register of Interest should be provided to the Income Tax authorities or other appropriate body for cross-checking with the Income Tax Returns filed by the MPs.
• The business and pecuniary interests of the spouse and dependents should also be declared by the MPs along with their own business interests.
• No field on the form should be left blank.
• On the section for ‘Type of Business’ – The description should be exhaustive to include all kinds of activities undertaken by the business.
• The date of filing the Interest details with the Secretariat should be provided on the form.​

Highlights of the report

Based on the declarations in the  Register of Members’ Interest made by 211 sitting MPs of Rajya Sabha, 124 (59%) MPs have declared on the form that they have no pecuniary interest/financial interest whatsoever under any of the five mentioned heads and 87 MPs have declared that they have financial interest under the mentioned heads.

Remunerative Directorship​​

• 22 MPs have declared that they have some financial interest in the form of Remunerative Directorship of a company and 189 (90%) MPs have declared that they have no financial interest under this head.
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  The highest amount received from Remunerative Directorship has been declared by Mr. Vijay Mallya (IND, Karnataka) with value of remunerative directorship of Rs 8.81 crores per annum followed by Mr. Rajeev Chandrashekar (IND Karnataka) with Rs. 6 crore per annum worth remunerative directorship and Mr. D. Kupendra Reddy (JD(S), Karnataka) with Rs. 3.24 crores.

• The maximum number of directorships have been declared by Mr. Vijay Mallya, an Independent MP from Karnataka with 11 remunerative directorships followed by Dr. Ashok S. Ganguly (Nominated) and Mr. Prabhakar Kore (BJP, Karnataka) with 3. 

Regular Remunerated Activity

• 23 MPs have declared that they have financial interest in the form of Regular Remunerated Activity and 188 (89%) MPs have no declared financial interests under this head.

• The highest amount received from regular remunerated activity has been declared by Mr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi (INC, Rajasthan) worth Rs. 82.33 crores followed by Dr. Vijay Mallya (IND, Karnataka) with Rs 2.51 crores per annum and Mr. Yalamanchili Satyanarayana Chowdary (TDP, Andhra Pradesh) with Rs. 1.68 crores as annual income from regular remunerative activity.

Shareholding of controlling nature​

• 35 MPs have declared that they have financial interest in the form of shareholding of a controlling nature and 176 (83%) MPs have declared that they have no financial interest under this head.

• The highest number of shareholdings of a controlling nature declared in the Register of Interests in companies have been declared by Mr. Dhoot Rajkumar Nandlal (Shiv Sena, Maharashtra) with shares from 31 companies followed by Mr. Kakde Sanjay Dattatraya (IND, Maharashtra) with shares from 30 companies and Mr. Vijay Darda (INC, Maharashtra) with shares from 19 companies. 

 Paid Consultancy​

• 5 MPs have declared that they have financial interest in the form of Paid Consultancy and 206 (98%) MPs have no declared financial interest under this head.

• The highest value of benefits derived for all paid consultancy has been declared by Dr. Ashok S. Ganguly (Nominated) with  Rs. 36 lakhs followed by Mr. K.T.S. Tulsi (Nominated) with Rs. 27.50 lakhs and Mr. Narendra Kumar Kashyap (BSP, Uttar Pradesh) with Rs. 10.53 lakhs.

Professional Engagement

• 39 MPs have declared that they have financial interest in the form of professional engagement and 172 (82%) MPs have no declared financial interest under this head.

• The highest amount received from professional engagements has been declared by Mr. Sachin Tendulkar (Nominated) with total fees/remuneration received from professional engagements worth Rs 72.79 crores followed by Mr. K.T.S. Tulsi (Nominated) with Rs. 19.13 crores and Mr. Mithun Chakraborty (AITC, West Bengal) with Rs. 16.93 crores.

 MPs with high assets and no declaration of pecuniary interest

• 21 MPs with total assets worth more than Rs. 10 crores have declared that they have no pecuniary interests.

  
  

• Four MPs with assets more than Rs. 100 crores have declared no pecuniary interests. These MPs are, Mr. T. Subbarami Reddy (INC, Andhra Pradesh) with Rs. 422.44 crores worth total assets followed by Mr. Arun Jaitley (BJP, Gujarat) with Rs. 120.06 crores, Dr. Karan Singh (INC, NCT of Delhi) with Rs. 116.43 crores and Ms. Mayawati (BSP, Uttar Pradesh) with Rs. 111.64 crores worth of total assets.