Vedanta Donated Rs 155 Cr to Political Parties in 2022-23

New Delhi: Vedanta Ltd donated Rs 155 crore to political parties through electoral bonds in the 2022-23 financial year that ended in March 2023.

Vedanta Ltd is a billionaire Anil Agarwal owned mining conglomerate. According to the company’s latest annual report, the donation to political parties in 2022-23 was higher than Rs 123 crore the firm gave to political parties in 2021-22 (April 2021 to March 2022).

But the company did not name the political parties that had received its donations through electoral bonds.

In 2017-18, the Modi government launched electoral bonds for electoral funding of political parties. It was to be used as an alternative to the cash donations.

One can buy electoral bonds from the State Bank of India (SBI) and donate them to any political party. Political parties can encash them without declaring the name of the donor.

In the last five years, Vedanta has donated a cumulative Rs 457 crore to political parties via electoral bonds.