The Wire: Dhiraj Mishra: New Delhi: Friday, May 15, 2020.
The government has incurred a cost of Rs 1.43 crore on printing low-denomination bonds, of which only 117 have been sold.
Despite the fact that the electoral bond scheme has been seriously questioned by different sections of society across the country and the petition challenging its legality in the Supreme Court is still pending, the Narendra Modi government is pressing ahead with it.
As per the response to an application filed under the Right to Information Act (RTI), electoral bonds worth Rs 19,000 crore have been printed so far. Of these, bonds worth more than Rs 6,200 crore have been sold in 13 phases altogether.
It is worth noting that the cost of printing the electoral bonds is not borne by the buyer but by the government. That means the printing cost is being borne by the people – taxpayer – indirectly.
The cost of printing one electoral bond comes to Rs 25, with an additional 6% GST charged both by the Centre and the state governments.
The State Bank of India (SBI) is the only bank authorised to sell electoral bonds. For the process by which individuals and entities can buy electoral bonds to make a donation to a political party and the party concerned can encash the bonds through a verified account with the bank, the SBI charges bank commission. These costs too are paid with taxpayers’ money.
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