In weeks before Supreme Court scrapped scheme, Govt printed electoral bonds worth Rs 8,350 crore

The information was provided by the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, in reply to an RTI application filed by Commodore Lokesh K Batra (Retd).

According to the RTI reply, commission and printing the EBs cost the Government Rs 13.94 crore, while the State Bank of India (SBI) — the authorised financial institution under the scheme — charged it Rs 12.04 crore, inclusive of GST, as commission for sales in 30 phases since the scheme was launched. Donors and political parties were not charged any commission or GST, the information revealed.

On February 15, in a historic verdict barely weeks before the Lok Sabha polls were set to be notified, a five-judge Constitution bench, headed by CJI D Y Chandrachud, struck down the EB scheme, saying changes made in the laws to implement it were unconstitutional.

Holding the scheme “violative” of the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression and right to information, the court did not agree with the Centre’s contention that it was meant to bring about transparency and curb black money in political funding.

Although the EC is yet to publish the annual reports of political parties for the financial year 2023-24, between March 2018 and January 2024, the collective amount of funds generated through sale of EBs was Rs 16,518 crore.

More than half of the funds extended through EBs so far have gone to the BJP. The party, as per its declarations to the EC, received Rs 6,565 crore via bonds between 2017 and 2023.

The Congress was a distant second at Rs 1,123 crore.

In its two separate but unanimous verdicts spanning 232 pages, the top court also directed the SBI to submit by March 6 the details of EBs purchased since April 12, 2019 till date to the Election Commission (EC) which will publish the information on its official website by March 13.

Although what remains uncertain at the moment is whether the data shared by SBI will be presented in a format that helps one immediately match the bond buyer to the political party that received the same bond.

As of now, it is assumed that corporates and high-networth individuals were the principal donors, as indicated by EC records, which show that around 94% of EBs purchased in most of the 30 phases since the scheme was launched were of Rs one crore face value each.