First sale of electoral bonds from March 1

On January 2, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said in Lok Sabha that electoral bonds can be bought for any value, in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh or Rs 1 crore. These bonds can be bought after fulfilling all the existing Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and making payments from a bank account. It will not carry the name of the payee.

“It may be noted that electoral bond shall be valid for fifteen days from the date of issue and no payment shall be made to any payee political party if the bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period. The bond deposited by any eligible political party to its account shall be credited on the same day,” the ministry said.

The SBI has been allowed to issue and encash electoral bonds initially at its four authorised branches. The government said eligible political parties can encash electoral bonds only through their bank accounts. Only registered political parties, which have secured not less than 1 per cent of the votes polled in the last election of the Lok Sabha or legislative assembly of the state, will be eligible to receive electoral bonds.