Electoral bonds of Rs 10 lakh, Rs 1 cr dominate donations: RTI application

Almost 99 per cent of donations received by political parties between March 2018 and January 24, 2019 were as electoral bonds of Rs 10 lakh and Rs one crore, a social worker has reportedly found through a right to information (RTI) application.

Donors purchased bonds worth Rs 1,407.09 crore of which Rs 1,403.90 crore were in the highest denominations of Rs 10 lakh and Rs one crore during the period, said Chandrashekhar Goud, who get the data from the State Bank of India (SBI) through an RTI query.

The donors bought 1,459 electoral bonds of denomination of Rs 10 lakh and 1,258 bonds of Rs one crore denomination. They purchased 318 bonds of Rs one lakh, 12 bonds of Rs 10,000 and 24 bonds of Rs 1000 denomination.

Parties redeemed electoral bonds worth Rs 1,395.89 crore.

Gaud had also asked for information on how many parties redeemed the bonds and worth how much money, but the SBI did not disclose it, citing rules in the RTI Act.

SBI sold electoral bonds in seven tranches. They were sold in five denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore.

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGI working for political reforms, had approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay order on the sale of electoral bonds.

On Friday, the Supreme Court refused to suspend the political funding through electoral bonds but, did introduce conditions to bring transparency in the process.