Political parties garnered Rs 10.45 bn via electoral bonds so far: Parl

Political parties have realised Rs 10.45 billion so far by encashing electoral bonds, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

Electoral bonds of the aggregated amount of Rs 10.56 billion were purchased by citizens or entities till the completion of 6th phase of issuance of electoral bonds in November 2018, Minister of State for Finance P Radhakrishnan said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

"So far six tranches of electoral bonds have been released by the Government as per the terms & conditions of the Notification dated 2.1.2018. An aggregated amount of Rs 10.56 billion was mobilised through sale of electoral bonds in six tranches. Out of the collected amount, a sum of Rs 10.45 billion was encashed by political parties," he said.

The government notified the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018 on January 2, 2018 to establish and cleanse the system of political funding in the country, the minister added.

As per provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds may be purchased by a person, who is a citizen of India or entities incorporated or established in India.

Registered political parties that have secured not less than 1 per cent of the votes polled in the last election of the Lok Sabha or legislative assembly will be eligible to receive electoral bonds.

Electoral bonds, which is issued for a certain value denominations from the specified branches of the State Bank of India (SBI), has a tenure of 15 days.

It does not carry the name of payee or the donor.

The bonds under the scheme will be available for purchase for a period of 10 days, each in the months of January, April, July and October, as may be specified by the central government, Radhakrishnan said.

An additional period of 30 days will be specified by the central government in the year of the General election, he added.

Electoral Bond (EB) is a bearer instrument in the nature of a Promissory Note and an interest free banking instrument.