Goa mine owners among top sponsors of political parties

Goa mine owners among top sponsors of political parties
herald correspondent
NEW DELHI, MARCH 30
Four Goa mine owners are among the 13 top corporate contributors to the political parties from the front door.
A compilation of the income tax returns to dig out the legal funding of the political parties shows that Aditya Birla Group has contributed the highest Rs 10 crore and its beneficiary is the Congress.
Neither the companies nor the political parties provide the black money given through the back door and hence that can not be assessed, though most companies prefer to give money front door since after the income tax law permitted legal contribution to the registered political parties.
Beneficiaries of the funds provided by the Goan mine owners are, however, not available, according to UTVI business news television channel that analysed the income tax returns of political parties and their top funders.
V M Salgoncar & Brothers, V S Dempo & Co Private Limited, and Chowgule Charitable Trust provided Rs 72.5 lakh each to the political parties while Timbo Private Limited contributed Rs 27 lakh.
Prime Builders and Developers is another company from Goa that contributed Rs 11 lakh to the Bhartiya Janata Party. They are in construction business also in Pune and Mumbai.
Another iron ore and manganese ore owner figuring in the list is Kamaljit Singh Ahluwalia, who has mines in Orissa. His firm contributed Rs 50 lakh to BJP which also got an equal amount from Bangalore-based Jubiliant Enpro Pvt Ltd.
Torrent Power Limited, a Gujarat-based company that also made a foray in Maharashtra for power distribution in Bhiwadi circle in 2006, and Maharashtra-based Videocon Industries are the second highest funders after Birlas by contributing Rs 2 crore each. Their beneficiaries are, however, also not listed.
Those who contributed Rs 10 lakh each to the political parties are Greater Noida(UP)-based Honda Siel Cars Ltd, Mumbai-based TransIndia Freight Services Private Ltd and United Phosphorus, who are in chemicals and fertilizer business.
The compilation made on the basis of the returns filed in five years until 2007-08 shows that the funding of the Congress by the corporate sector slumped only in two financial years of 2003-04 and 2004-05 as compared to the BJP but surged back in the next year and more than doubled the contributions received by the BJP in 2006-07 and 2007-08.