Vedanta's donations to BJP nearly quadruples to Rs 97 crore in FY25

New Delhi: Billionaire Anil Agarwal's mining conglomerate Vedanta Ltd nearly quadrupled its donations to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), contributing Rs 97 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2025, according to its latest annual report.

Under "Miscellaneous Expenses', Vedanta detailed the political donations as well as the management and brand fee expenses it paid to its parent, London-listed Vedanta Resources Plc.

Political donations totalled Rs 157 crore in 2024-25, up from Rs 97 crore in the previous financial year.

While donations to the BJP soared, those to the opposition Congress were cut to just Rs 10 crore.

The donations in fiscal year April 2024 to March 2025 (FY25) included "contributions to Bharatiya Janata Party of Rs 97 crore (Rs 26 crore in fiscal year ended March 31, 2024), Biju Janata Dal of Rs 25 crore (March 31, 2024: Rs 15 crore), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha of Rs 20 crore (March 31, 2024: Rs 5 crore) and All India Congress Committee of Rs 10 crore (March 31, 2024: Rs 49 crore)," according to the annual report for 2024-25.

Vedanta has been one of the biggest donors to political parties.

In 2022-23, it had donated a total of Rs 155 crore to political parties and Rs 123 crore in FY22 (April 2021 to March 2022). Beneficiary-wise, the breakup was not provided for the previous donations.

It had, through the now-scraped electoral bonds donated, Rs 457 crore to political parties in the five years of their existence starting 2017.

Electoral bonds allowed companies and individuals to donate unlimited amounts anonymously to political parties. The Supreme Court last year banned Electoral Bonds, calling them "unconstitutional".

Vedanta's Janhit Electoral Trust is one of the over a dozen electoral trusts floated by corporates for making donations to political parties. Other corporates that own electoral trusts include Progressive Electoral Trust of Tatas, People's Electoral Trust of Reliance, Satya Electoral Trust of Bharti Group, MP Birla Group's Paribartan Electoral Trust and KK Birla Group's Samaj Electoral Trust Association. Bajaj and Mahindra also have electoral trusts.

On brand fee, Vedanta said the group has a brand license and strategic service fee agreement with Vedanta Resources Ltd for use of the brand 'Vedanta' and providing strategic services, which envisage payment to VRL ranging from 0.75 per cent to 3 per cent of the turnover of the company and certain subsidiaries.

"During the year ended March 31, 2024, VRL assigned the agreement, including a sublicensing agreement, to its wholly-owned subsidiary, VRIL, whereby the Group will fulfil its obligations under the agreement via VRIL with effect from April 1, 2024," the annual report said.

Vedanta paid Rs 2,397 crore in brand and other fees to VRIL in the 2024-25 fiscal, up from Rs 2,326 crore in the previous year.

"Furthermore, the company has sublicensed the agreement to its subsidiary, Hindustan Zinc Ltd, at a net sublicensing fee of 1.70 per cent of HZL's annual consolidated turnover. The company also executed a sublicensing agreement with Ferro Alloy Corporation Ltd (FACOR) at a net sublicensing fee of 2.50 per cent of FACOR's annual consolidated turnover with effect from April 1, 2024.

"Consequently, for the year ended March 31, 2025, the Group has recorded an expense of Rs 582 crore (March 31, 2024: Rs 477 crore)," Vedanta said in the annual report.

Vedanta Resources owns 56.38 per cent of Mumbai-listed Vedanta Ltd.