Electoral bonds generated donations worth Rs 9,188 cr, BJP's share at 57%

Electoral bonds generated donations worth over Rs 9,188 crore for all political parties put together till 2021-22, of which the BJP alone accounted for over 57 per cent as against 10 per cent for the Congress, according to ADR data.

Between 2016-17 and 2021-22, the last year for which the data is available, seven national parties and 24 regional parties received a total donation of Rs 9,188.35 crore through electoral bonds.

Of this, the BJP received Rs 5,272 crore and the Congress received Rs 952 crore, while the rest went to other parties.

A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday began hearing a batch of pleas challenging the validity of the electoral bond scheme for political funding of parties.

According to the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), national parties experienced a significant surge in electoral bond donations, witnessing a 743 per cent increase between FY 2017-18 and FY 2021-22.

In contrast, corporate donations to national parties increased by only 48 per cent during the same period, it had said.

State parties also received a substantial proportion of their donations through electoral bonds.

The electoral bonds scheme was introduced in 2017 by way of a Finance Bill and was implemented in 2018.

It serves as a means for individuals and entities to make donations to registered political parties while maintaining donor anonymity.

The State Bank of India (SBI) issues the bonds in denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh, and Rs 1 crore.

In July this year, the ADR had said that more than half of all donations received by political parties between 2016-17 and 2021-22 were through electoral bonds and the BJP received more funds than all other national parties put together.

It said donations worth around Rs 16,437 crore were received by the seven national parties and 24 state parties between 2016-17 and 2021-22. Of this, Rs 9,188.35 crore -- around 56 per cent -- were received through electoral bonds.