New Delhi: The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a National Election Watchdog has reviewed financial interests of 213 sitting Rajya Sabha members to sense why they are so sought after.
The ADR report has found 89 (41.8%) MPs have declared that they have a financial interest that falls under one or more of these –remunerative directorship, regular remunerated activity, shareholding of controlling nature, paid consultancy or professional engagement.
But the report has found 124 (58.2%) MPs have not provided any details about financial interest under any of these five categories.
Twenty four MPs (11.3%) have declared that they have some financial interest in the form of Remunerative Directorship of a company.
The highest amount received for Remunerative Directorship has been declared by D Kupendra Reddy (JD-S) Karnataka) with a value of `40.68 crore per annum followed by BJP’s Rajeev Chandrasekhar with a value of `7.03 crore and Abdul Wahab (IUML Kerala) with `3.34 crore.
Thirty MPs (14.1%) have declared that they have a financial interest in Regular Remunerated Activity. The highest amount received from such activity was declared by BJP’s Mahesh Poddar (Jharkhand) at `3.18 crore per annum, followed by Mary Kom who is BJP nominated, with `2.50 crore per annum and Swapan Dasgupta (nominated) with `66.60 lakh as annual income from regular remunerated activity.
Meanwhile, 44 (20.7%) MPs have declared that they have financial interest in the form of shareholding of controlling nature. The highest amount of shareholdings of a controlling nature in companies have been declared by BJP’s Ravindra Kishore Sinha from Bihar, with a value of `747 crore followed by Congress’ Abhishek Manu Singhvi with a value of `386 crore and Independent MP Kakde Sanjay Dattatraya with a value of `262 crore.
But only two MPs have declared that they have financial interest in the form of paid consultancy. The highest value of benefits derived for all paid consultancy has been declared by senior advocate KTS Tulsi with `27.50 lakh, followed by Vikas Haribhau Mahatme with 5.60 lakh. While Tulsi is a nominated MP, Mahatme is from BJP.
As many as 40 (18.8 per cent) Rajya Sabha members have declared that they have financial interest in the form of professional engagement. The top three in this category are all lawyers. The highest fees has been declared by Abhishek Manu Singhvi ( `177 crore).