Release of Electoral Bond Data Sparks ED-Income Tax Scrutiny on Several Companies

GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 16th March. Election bond information has been made available to the public by the Election Commission. On March 12, 2024, State Bank of India (SBI) gave the Election Commission (ECI) information about electoral bonds, per the Supreme Court’s directive, according to the Election Commission. The information is currently available on the Election Commission’s website. The website has been updated with the exact version of the electoral bond data that SBI provided. Currently, a lot of startling information is being revealed about these.

Election-related bonds were purchased by three of the top five corporations that gave money to political parties between 2019 and 2024 while they were under investigation by the Income Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). These include mining behemoth Vedanta, infrastructure company Megha Engineering, and lottery company Future Gaming.

Future gaming is on the top

Future Gaming and Hotels Pvt Ltd, which is owned by Santiago Martin, is the top purchaser of electoral bonds, according to information made public by the Election Commission on Thursday. Between 2019 and 2024, the lottery company invested Rs 1,300 crore in bonds. Early in 2019, the ED opened a money laundering investigation against Future Gaming. By July of that year, it had taken possession of the company’s assets valued at over Rs 250 crore.

In the case, movable assets valued at Rs 409.92 crore were attached by the ED on April 2, 2022. Five days after these properties were attached, on April 7, Future Gaming paid Rs 100 crore for electoral bonds.

A report claims that the ED had opened an investigation into Santiago Martin and his business, M/s Future Gaming Solutions (P) Ltd., in accordance with the PMLA’s provisions. This company was formerly known as Martin Lottery Agencies Limited and is presently known as M/s Future Gaming & Hotel Services (P) Limited. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a charge sheet, which prompted the ED investigation.

The Enforcement Department (ED) claims that Martin and other individuals organized a criminal conspiracy to break the Lotteries Regulation Act, 1998 and defraud the government of Sikkim in order to obtain wrongful gains. In an announcement released on July 22, 2019, the ED claimed that “Martin and his associates made illegal earnings of Rs 910.3 crore by inflating claims of prize-winning tickets.”

Megha Engineering  & Engineering Company

Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) of Hyderabad is the second-largest donor to political parties. Between 2019 and 2024, it purchased bonds totaling Rs 1000 crore. Under the direction of Krishna Reddy, Megha Engineering works on significant Telangana government projects like the Kaleshwaram Dam Project. It is also building the Polavaram Dam and the Zojila Tunnel.

The Income Tax Department raided the company’s offices in October 2019. After that, the Enforcement Directorate also began an investigation. Coincidentally, MEIL had bought electoral bonds for Rs 50 crore on April 12 of that year. A $1 billion investment proposal to establish an electric vehicle manufacturing plant was turned down by the government last year from Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD and its Hyderabad-based partner MEIL.

Vedanta group also on radar

The fifth-largest donor is the Vedanta Group, led by Anil Aggarwal. It has invested Rs 376 crore in bonds, the first tranche of which was bought in April 2019. However, it is significant that the ED asserted in the middle of 2018 that it possessed proof of Vedanta Group’s purported involvement in the visa bribery case, in which certain Chinese nationals were granted visas by allegedly breaching the law.

In 2022, the ED filed a reference to the CBI regarding a corruption case. Subsequently, the ED opened a money laundering investigation. Vedanta Limited acquired bonds valued at more than Rs 39 crore on April 16, 2019. It acquired bonds totaling more than Rs 337 crore over the course of the following four years, excluding the pandemic year of 2020, until November 2023, bringing Vedanta’s bond purchases to a total value of more than Rs 376 crore.

Names are included among those who donated

Additionally, Jindal Steel & Power ranks in the top 15. During this time, the company has given Rs 123 crore in bond donations. In the coal block allocation case, central agencies have been looking into the company. In April 2022, the ED conducted a raid on the company offices and Naveen Jindal’s house in relation to a new forex violation case.

Based on information provided by the Election Commission, Grasim Industries, Megha Engineering, and Piramal Enterprises are among the companies making electoral bond donations to political parties. Torrent Power, Bharti Airtel, DLF Commercial Developers, and Vedanta Limited are a few examples of this. Apart from this, Apollo Tyres, Lakshmi Mittal, Edelweiss, PVR, Keventer, Sula Wine, Welspun, and Sun Pharma are among the names of purchasers of electoral bonds on the list.

The Supreme Court had issued directives

In fact, State Bank of India has issued electoral bonds worth Rs 16,518 crore in 30 installments since the launch of the scheme in 2018. The Election Commission was previously instructed by the Supreme Court to receive the data regarding electoral bonds purchased on or before April 12, 2019. The financial institution with authorization to issue electoral bonds is SBI.