New Delhi Electoral bonds price ₹545.25 crore have been bought between October 1 and 10, with the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) getting the majority of the contributions, knowledge acquired below the Proper to Data (RTI) Act has proven.
Electoral bonds have been pitched as a substitute for money donations made to political events as a part of efforts to deliver transparency in political funding.
The State Financial institution of India (SBI), the one authorised financial institution to problem and encash electoral bonds, notified sale of the bonds within the twenty second part from October 1. Sale of the primary batch of electoral bonds occurred from March 1-10, 2018.
In response to an RTI utility filed by Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd), the SBI has mentioned {that a} complete of 741 electoral bonds have been bought in the course of the twenty second tranche, 96% of which had been of the denomination of ₹1 crore every. Nearly 90% of the electoral bonds went to 4 events — the Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP), the Congress, the Nationalist Congress Occasion, and the Trinamool Congress, it mentioned.
HT has seen the RTI reply
As of March this yr, 25 political events have opened particular present accounts to redeem and encash electoral bonds, the SBI mentioned in its reply, whereas declining to call the events because the accounts are held in a fiduciary capability.
“25 political events have opened their account for the aim of encashing Electoral Bonds until date. (Accounts are bc’ing opened on the branches after acquiring approval from TE Deptt.),” the reply said.
The event comes forward of meeting elections to Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat later this yr.
The electoral bond scheme, first floated in 2017 and carried out in 2018, has met with criticism for missing transparency. These against it have additionally asserted that a big chunk of the donations have gone to the BJP, the ruling social gathering. In 2019-20, the BJP obtained over 75% of the electoral bonds, in response to the Election Fee knowledge. The critics have additionally argued that for the reason that bonds are bought by means of a government-owned financial institution there’s a risk that the social gathering in energy can discover out who’s funding their political rivals
Offered 4 occasions a yr ( in January, April, July and October), electoral bonds permit political events to simply accept cash from donors whose identities are saved nameless. They’re re bought in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakh, and ₹1 crore.
SBI is the only real authorised financial institution to promote and redeem the bonds. Prospects of different banks may also buy the bonds by way of completely different cost channels offered to them. Nevertheless, a political social gathering can solely redeem the bond from one of many 29 authorised branches of the financial institution.
A political social gathering should even have a minimum of 1% vote share in most up-to-date normal elections or meeting elections to obtain donations by way of electoral bonds.
A petition searching for a keep on the sale of the bonds is pending earlier than the Supreme Courtroom.
On October 14, 2022, the Supreme Courtroom requested the central authorities whether or not the electoral bonds’ scheme reveals the supply of cash pumped in to fund political events even because the Centre repeatedly maintained that the scheme is “completely clear”.
The courtroom is scheduled to listen to the matter on December 6.