Gaps remain in electoral bond information despite additional disclosures

The Election Commission of India is set to release information on serial numbers enabling matching of donors with the parties to which they donated money

This report has been updated.

Information on over a quarter of electoral bonds said to have been issued since 2018, may not be in the public domain in its entirety, despite new disclosures due on March 21.
 

The Election Commission of India (ECI) is set to release information on serial numbers enabling matching of donors with the parties to which they donated money. 
 

It has released information on data from April 2019 to February 2024.
 

The new disclosures are expected to relate to bonds of the same vintage. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) had earlier sourced additional data from applications filed under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
 

Additional data received in sealed covers have some details on the amounts  received  before 2019, but not all parties have made full disclosures on the data pertaining to donors. A Business Standard analysis compares the collated donor and recipient data from the election commission which has all the details from 2019 onwards, with data compiled by ADR through RTI applications and other sources, which covers an earlier period.

In January this year, ADR released a report, according to which, the State Bank of India issued electoral bonds worth over Rs 16,000 crore, and a similar amount was redeemed in 30 phases since the inception of the scheme in 2018.
 

A total of Rs 16,492 crore was redeemed by political parties, and the remaining Rs 26 crore funds were transferred to the Prime Minister Relief Fund.
 

The ECI data covers 20,421 bonds worth Rs 12,769 crore redeemed by political parties between 12 April 2019 and 15 February 2024 as per State Bank of India (SBI) disclosures. The data collated by ADR for all 30 phases from SBI's RTI responses spans from March 2018 (inception of the scheme) to January 2024 (last phase of electoral bonds) and shows that 27,811 bonds worth Rs 16,492 cr were encashed by parties. The gap is nearly Rs 4000 cr and involves over 7000 bonds, as per Business Standard calculations. (Chart 1)

This also manifests in the declared data of key political parties. The Bharatiya Janata Party, for example, has bonds worth over Rs 500 crore, which are not part of the ECI disclosures because earlier data is excluded.

Other parties show similar gaps, though some have larger amounts in the ECI disclosures because they cover a period in which they received more donations. Details for the first eight phases are missing in the ECI data. (Charts 2,3).   





 

The top ten donors accounted for over a third of the total donations, valued at Rs 4,564 crore.

The top donor was Future Gaming and Hotel Services, which bought total electoral bonds worth Rs 1,368 crore, followed by Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited, which donated Rs 966 crore. (Chart 4)  

 

In February, the Supreme Court had ruled the electoral bond scheme was invalid. It removed earlier limits imposed on corporate donations to political parties. The apex court subsequently ordered the full disclosure of electoral bond data, though only from 2019.
 

The data is being released in phases, with the latest details due on Thursday.