The Supreme Court’s judgment on electoral bonds could result in corporates parking more money with electoral trusts, observers said.

There are around 18 electoral trusts registered with the government.

The largest among them is Prudent Electoral Trust which received a contribution of Rs 363.13 crore in 2022-23.

Introduced by the UPA-II government in 2013, these are trusts set up with the main objective of distributing the contributions received from companies and individuals to political parties.

Contribution received by such trusts is only a fraction of that received via electoral bonds, and their popularity could now rise.

According to data with the Election Commission and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), all political parties received more than Rs 12,000 crore till 2022-23 after the introduction of electoral bonds in 2018, of which the ruling BJP obtained nearly 55 per cent or Rs 6,565 crore.

According to Rishi Sehgal, Advocate on Record, Supreme Court of India, Section 182 of the Companies Act provides for certain checks on contributions made by
companies.

For instance, all contributions have to be made through cheque or bank draft and online remittance through bank, and no contribution can be made through cash.

A recent report from the ADR said that 39 corporate or business houses contributed Rs 363.71 crore to electoral trusts in 2022-23.

Around 34 of them contributed Rs 360.46 crore to Prudent Electoral Trust. Megha Engineering is the top donor at Rs 87 crore.