Hiding electoral bonds donors names will stifle transparency: Congress

The Congress on Wednesday said that hiding the donor names of electoral bonds is a regressive step that will convert the process to the Narendra Modi government's "favourite colour black" and is meant to "stifle transparency".

"Hiding donor names of electoral bonds is a regressive step that paints process of electoral funding to Modi government's favourite colour: BLACK!," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala in a series of tweets.

"Is it meant to stifle 'transparency' & give unlimited access to ruling party to misuse information and state machinery to coerce donors!" he added.

The government on Tuesday notified a scheme of electoral bonds in a bid to clean the system and bring transparency in political funding in the country.

Announcing the launch of the scheme in Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said these bonds will bring a substantial amount of transparency in political donations against the present system of contributions.

The electoral bonds will be a bearer instrument in the nature of a promissory note and interest-free banking instrument which any citizen or a corporate body will be eligible to purchase.

The purchaser would be allowed to buy the bonds after fulfilling the KYC norms and by making payment from a bank account. It will not carry the name of the payee.

--IANS

sid/vd