Cogencis: Mumbai: Thursday, November 29, 2018.
As political fever catches on ahead of
the General Elections, electoral bonds worth 8.73 bln rupees have been sold by
State Bank of India’s Mumbai branch as on Oct 10, according to a reply to a
Right to Information Act query.
The government had introduced electoral
bonds scheme in January to allow people to make anonymous donations to
political parties through banking channels.
Earlier, most of the anonymous donations
to political parties were made in cash as donors were reluctant to use banking
channels for the fear of being identified.
As part of efforts to cleanse the
political funding system, the government introduced electoral bonds and
restricted the maximum amount of cash donation to a political party to 2,000
rupees per person.
Electoral bonds are sold through
specified branches of State Bank of India in tranches. The last tranche closed
on Nov 10.
In Mumbai, the bonds are sold through
SBI’s main branch at Fort.
The bonds, in multiples of 1,000 rupees,
10,000 rupees, 100,000 rupees, 1 mln rupees, and 10 mln rupees are valid for 15
days from the date of issue.
These bonds can be used to make donations
only to political parties that have secured 1% or more of the votes polled in
the previous General Elections or state assembly elections.
According to the RTI query, the maximum
number of bonds sold in Mumbai was of 1-mln-rupee value, followed by 10 mln
rupees.
Till Oct 10, SBI’s Mumbai branch sold 896
bonds of 1-mln-rupee denomination and 782 bonds of 10-mln-rupee
denomination.
However, there was hardly any demand for
bonds of lower denomination.
State Bank of India’s Mumbai branch sold
just two bonds of 10,000 rupees and 22 bonds of 1,000 rupees.
The branch sold 93 bonds worth 100,000
rupees.
Electoral bonds are similar to a bank
note that is payable to the bearer on demand, free of interest, and issued
exclusively by State Bank of India.
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