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Political parties garnered Rs 676.26 crore in the 23rd phase of the sale of electoral bonds (EBs) between November 11 and 15, ahead of the Assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh.
As much as Rs 660.25 crore of EBs — 97.63 per cent of the bonds sold — were encashed by political parties at the New Delhi Main branch of State Bank of India, SBI said in its reply to the RTI application filed by Commodore Lokesh K Batra (Retd). SBI is the only bank authorised to issue EBs to political parties. SBI said EBs worth Rs 309.45 crore were sold by the Mumbai Main branch and Rs 222.40 crore by the New Delhi branch.
With this, the total amount collected by parties through EBs has gone up to Rs 11,467 crore from various anonymous donors in 23 phases since 2018 when the Electoral Bond Scheme was introduced.
Anonymous donors had given Rs 545 crore in the 22nd sale of EBs conducted between October 1 and 10, according to data available from SBI. Parties got Rs 1,221 crore in the last two months and Rs 389.50 crore in the previous sale in July this year.
As many as 666 EBs sold in the latest phase were of Rs 1 crore denomination, indicating that high networth individuals or corporates could have shelled out the money to political parties.
Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry allowed the sale of EBs for 15 more days (24th phase) by amending the Electoral Bonds Scheme. The scheme was amended on November 7 to allow an additional period of 15 days for the sale of EBs ahead of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections. The 23rd tranche of EBs was sold for subscription between November 9-15.
As much as Rs 660.25 crore of EBs — 97.63 per cent of the bonds sold — were encashed by parties at the New Delhi Main branch of SBI. The total amount collected by parties through EBs has gone up to Rs 11,467 crore from various anonymous donors in 23 phases since 2018.
On December 3, the sale of 24 the tranche was notified from Monday (December 5) onwards — during the second phase of voting for the Gujarat elections — which will be held till December 12.
According to the provisions of the EB Scheme, only the political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and have secured not less than one per cent of the votes polled in the last general election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly are eligible to receive electoral bonds. Several petitions are already in the Supreme Court challenging the provisions of Finance Act 2017 which paved the way for these anonymous bonds.
Interestingly, major political parties have not officially disclosed the amount they received through Electoral Bonds. Further, as the bonds are sold through a public sector bank, the government would come to know who is funding which political party, sources said.
gave Rs 1,056.73 crore in 2018, Rs 5,071.99 crore in 2019 and Rs 363.96 crore in 2020, Rs 1502.29 crore in 2021 and Rs 3,473 crore in 2022, SBI had said. A total of Rs 7.63 crore, inclusive of GST, has been charged to the government as commission so far, consequent to the sale of Electoral Bonds in 22 phases.
Electoral Bonds are purchased anonymously by donors and are valid for 15 days from the date of issue. A debt instrument, these can be bought by donors from a bank, and the political party can then encash them. These can be redeemed only by an eligible party by depositing the same in its designated account maintained with a bank. The bonds are issued by SBI in denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore. Only 25 political parties are eligible for redemption of electoral bonds.
