Most Of India’s Top 50 Listed Firms Stayed Away From Political Funding

The majority of India's top 50 listed companies did not make any political funding in 2018-19 even as the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections saw a record spending binge by political parties.

Nifty 50 companies donated a combined Rs 692.8 crore for political purposes in 2018-19, an analysis of their annual reports show. But just two companies—Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. and Tata Steel Ltd.—contributed more than half of it. In all, 14 made political donations and the remaining 36 didn't.

Listed corporates are mandated by law to disclose their political contributions under the Section 182 of the Companies Act. These include any donations, subscriptions, payments, and even expenditure incurred on publications, directly or indirectly, for the benefit of a political party. Upper limits on spends and the need for shareholder approval were done away with in 2017.

To be sure, this number only includes donations by listed entities and not the contributions, if any, by promoters through their privately held firms.

While the spending by Nifty 50 companies in the previous fiscal was more than seven times what they spent in 2013-14, it was only a fraction of the roughly Rs 55,000 crore that were spent during the 2019 general election.

Still, it indicates how corporates are opening their wallets to political parties and stepping up their donations. An ADR study of all corporate donations, including non-listed firms, shows that till 2017-18 the number was never as high as much just these 14 companies have given towards political purposes.

Who Gave What

Two Tata Group companies—Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Steel—were the top political donors contributing a combined Rs 395 crore. Anil Agarwal-owned Vedanta Ltd. contributed Rs 67 crore, nearly triple of what it did in the 2013-14, making it the second biggest donor. Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel Ltd. gave away Rs 54.2 crore.

Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd. and Gautam Adani-owned Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd. did not make any political donations, according to their annual reports.

ITC Ltd., Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., Cipla Ltd., Hindalco Industries Ltd., Ultratech Cement Ltd., Tata Steel And TCS were the companies that did not contribute in FY14, but did in FY19.

(Corrects an earlier version that misstated Bharti Airtel's FY19 political contribution)