Moneylife: Pune: Saturday, July 07, 2018.
The electoral
bond scheme, launched to promote transparency in funding and donation received
by political parties, has seen donors purchasing electoral bonds worth over Rs
438 crore, of which 348 bonds are valued at Rs 1 crore in the last three
months, according to an RTI query.
Based on an
initiative by the government and the Election Commission, the State Bank of
India (SBI) introduced electoral bonds worth Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1,00,000,
Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore.
According to
details gathered from the SBI on electoral bonds by a Madhya Pradesh-based
social worker Chandrashekhar Gaur through the Right to Information (RTI) route,
donors purchased bonds worth Rs 438 crore in three months March, April and May,
from various SBI branches.
One
particular detail which emerged clear is most of the bonds were purchased by
the millionaires, to be donated to the political parties.
Of the Rs 438
crore bonds purchased, the political parties have monetized only 417 bonds.
The SBI data
revealed that most of the bonds worth Rs 1 crore were purchased from a Mumbai
branch 206, followed by New Delhi main branch 72, a Bengaluru branch 41,
Kolkata main branch 40, a Chennai branch 14 and a Gandhinagar branch 11 bonds.
However, when
Gaur asked for more details which parties received how many bonds and if those
were monetized the bank, citing a "third party case", refused to
divulge more information.
Former
Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi however said not providing any
information by citing or mentioning "third party" is against the
rules and there is no such provision in RTI.
He said the
bonds were issued to tackle the menace of black money but if any detail related
to it is concealed, the purpose of issuing bonds won't be fulfilled.
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