Parties get Rs 545 cr through electoral bonds ahead of Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat elections

The total amount collected by parties has gone up to Rs 10,791 crore from various anonymous donors in 22 phases since 2018 when the Electoral Bond Scheme was introduced. Political parties received EBs worth Rs 389.50 crore from donors in the previous sale in July this year.

As many as 738 EBs worth Rs 542.25 crore were redeemed by parties in the latest phase, SBI, the only bank authorised to sell these bonds, said in its reply to the RTI application filed by Commodore Lokesh K Batra (Retd). Significantly, this amount has been collected by the political parties as Assembly elections in HP are scheduled in November 2022 and Gujarat by December.

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, as the case may be, are eligible to receive electoral bonds. The Supreme Court has adjourned the hearing of a pending plea challenging the EB scheme to December 6. The petitions were filed in 2017 challenging the provisions of Finance Act 2017 which paved the way for these anonymous bonds.

SBI data shows that in the October phase, as much as Rs 67 crore worth EBs was encashed at the Hyderabad main branch, Rs 285 crore at New Delhi main branch and Rs 143 crore at the Kolkata main branch of SBI.

However, SBI data reveals that EBs worth Rs 117 crore purchased from the Hyderabad main branch of SBI and Rs 115 crore from the Chennai branch. Although donors shelled out Rs 40 crore at the Mumbai main branch, not a single EB was encashed here. As much as 96 per cent of the EBs sold were of the face value of Rs one crore each.

Interestingly, major political parties have not 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.

On Saturday, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot alleged that one political party got as much as 95 per cent of the Electoral Bonds issued so far.

Donors 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 2,797 crore in 2022, SBI had said.

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 23 political parties are eligible for redemption of electoral bonds.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) — Common Cause and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) — have legally challenged the scheme that was started in 2018. They, along with several other critics, have been alleging that the introduction of EBs is “distorting democracy” in India.

According to the ADR, in the case of continuance of the scheme, the principle of anonymity of the bond donor enshrined in the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018 must be done away with. “All political parties which receive donations through Electoral Bonds should declare in their Contributions Reports the total amount of such donations received in the given financial year, along with the detailed particulars of the donors as against each bond; the amount of each such bond and the full particulars of the credit received against each bond,” ADR said in a report.

Year-wise EB sales:

2022: Rs 2,797 crore

2021: Rs 1,502.29 crore

2020: Rs 363.96 crore

2019: Rs 5,071.99 crore

2018: Rs 1,056.73 crore

TOTAL: Rs 10,791 crore