CII to put a "cheque" on secret poll funding

He clarified that though the payments will not be exempt from income tax, the donor companies may well earn the goodwill of their shareholders by declaring them. “The contributions to political parties will come from the profits of these companies. As far as the shareholders are concerned, they will see the payments as being made in the larger interest of the country.” Das said a beginning towards transparent funding was made in the 1996 elections when some parties like the Congress and the BJP had written formal letters to captains of industry asking for contributions. This time, though no party had sent out the letters yet, they expected the formal requests would eventually come.

He said he knew of at least two companies – Bajaj Auto and Mukand Industries – who had made payments of Rs 50 lakh to the Congress and the BJP respectively for the 1996 elections and accounted for it in their books. According to the CII president, it was the process of deregulation and de-licencing, as well as attempts by the United Front Government in putting the corruption issue into focus, that had facilitated the climate of change in election funding.

“Though responses from industry has been largely negative because elections have come too soon,” Das explained, “we are expecting a breakthrough and hope that a majority of payments will be made by cheque.” One shift that was envisaged, Das said, was that several companies might opt for contributing to regional parties rather than of the national ones. “The industry has realised that because of frequent changes in the top, the Government is no longer the major player for seeking licences . Industry will thus be hedging its bets and paying regional as well as national players judiciously.”