Bring transparency in electoral bonds scheme: Cong to govt

The Congress has asked the government to bring more transparency in the electoral bonds scheme and alleged that it was a "completely opaque mechanism".
Congress treasurer Motilal Vora in a letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley demanded more transparency so that the electorate knows who the donor was, which was the donee political party and what was the amount donated.
He said that he had announced in his budget speech that he would come up with the scheme that would bring transparency in electoral funding.
Vora said from the finance minister's speech it could be inferred that the donor's name would be known only to the bank issuing the bond and the donee's name would be only known to the income tax department.

"In effect, only the government will know the names of the donors and the donees, and the people will not know who donated how much to which political party.
"I am afraid that this will not ensure transparency in electoral funding, on the contrary, it will be a completely opaque mechanism," he said.

The Congress leader said his party would give a detailed view only after studying the proposals of the scheme formulated by Jaitley.
"My party's view is that, to ensure total transparency, the names of the donors and the donees and the amounts donated must be known to the public so that the people will have the information," he said.

The Congress and some other political parties are demanding more transparency in electoral funding.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his budget speech, had announced formulation of a new electoral bond scheme to bring transparency in electoral funding as part of government's electoral reform measures.