Out of the total 213 sitting Rajya Sabha MPs, 89 MPs have pecuniary or financial interests in the form of shareholdings, consultancies, company directorship, etc. as per a report by a not-for-profit organisation, Association of Democratic Reforms.

The ADR report reviewed the MPs’ financial interests in five categories – regular remunerated activity, remunerative directorship, the shareholding of controlling nature, and paid consultancy or professional engagement. Out of all the 213 sitting Rajya Sabha members, 124 (58.2 per cent)  have not declared their financial interests under any of the above mentioned five categories. While 17 Rajya Sabha members have not at all submitted their declarations under any category.

Remunerative Directorship

The report found that twenty-four MPs (11.3 per cent) have declared their financial interest in the form of remunerative directorship of a company. The highest earnings in this category were of D. Kupendra Reddy, a JD(S) representative from Karnataka. He received Rs 40.68 crore per annum.

Second in line with a value of Rs 7.03 crore was BJP MP, form Kerala, Rajeev Chandrasekhar. The third was given to Kerala’s Abdul Wahab from Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) party with Rs 3.34 crore.

 Shareholdings

Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi is in the second spot with shares valuing Rs 386 crore in various companies. The third position was taken by an independent MP Kakde Sanjay Dattatraya who has shares worth Rs 262 crore in various companies.  

Paid Consultancy And Professional Engagement

Only two MPs declared that they have a financial interest in this category. Senior advocate K.T.S. Tulsi earned Rs 27.50 lakhs, while Dr BJP MP from Maharashtra, Vikas Haribhau Mahatme, earned 5.6 lakhs from paid consultancies.

As many as 40 members (18.8 per cent) declared that they have a financial interest in the form of professional engagement. The top three members – Congress’s Abhishek Manu Singhvi, P Chidambaram, and Mr Tulsi were all lawyers. 

Of the total 124 MPs who declared no financial interests, 104 MPs have total assets worth more than Rs 1 crore.

The top four MPs with more than Rs 1 crore assets but without any financial interests according to their declarations were T. Subbarami Reddy of Congress with Rs 422.44 crore, second came Telugu Desam Party’s C.M Ramesh with Rs 258.20 crore, the third spot was picked up by former and late finance minister Arun Jaitley with Rs 11.42 crore and Congress veteran Ambika Soni with Rs 105.82 crore of total assets.

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