by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
Electoral Bonds Scheme a big flop
Bonds worth Rs 438 cr bought across India
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, July 27
The government's ambitious Electoral Bonds scheme to cleanse the political funding has turned out to be a big flop.
Electoral bonds worth Rs 438 crores have been sold so far by the State Bank of India, the only authorized bank to issue such bonds since January this year. In all, 980 Electoral Bonds have been issued in three phases.
According to data accessed from the Finance Ministry, 980 electoral bonds for a cumulative value of Rs 438.30 crore in three tranches have been issued.
Of these, as many as 959 bonds have been redeemed of the total value of Rs 437.30 crores. The government had brought the electoral bonds scheme with the objective to cleanse the black money culture in the political system. Another feature in the scheme was that it will not contain the buyers name and it will remain with the State Bank of India. The Bond buyer can handover the same to a political party of his choice and the political party concerned can redeem it at any point of time.
It is also clear from the data available with the Lokmat that the enthusiasm towards the scheme amongst the corporate houses is waning.
While a total of 520 bonds amounting to Rs 222 crore were issued in the first tranche in March this year, it came down to in the second tranche. The number of bonds sold came down to 256 bonds and amount was just half to Rs 114.90 crores. It fell miserably in the third tranche when 204 bonds worth Rs 101.40 crore were sold.
The bonds were sold by the SBI till May 2018 in three tranches and the fourth window will be opened shortly. The bonds are sold in the multiples value of Rs 1,000, Rs10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore.
The Finance Ministry disclosed that almost the entire amount of Rs 437.30 crores had already been redeemed by the parties. More interestingly, 21 bonds worth Rs 11 crores were not redeemed by registered political parties. These bonds have now become infructuous and will have zeo value as these had to be redeemed within 15 days of issuance.
Finance Minister Arun Jailtey, in Budget 2017-18, while announcing the electoral bonds scheme, had also imposed a ban on receiving more than Rs 2,000 in cash from one person. It was strongly opposed the parties saying that it will add to the opaqueness of political funding.
But Jaitley refused to relent and the scheme was finally notified in January. The bonds can be purchased by all citizens of India and registered political parties which secured not less than 1 per cent of the votes polled in the latest general election to the Lok Sabha or a State Assembly are eligible to receive them.
Ends
(Rs Crore)
Bonds Amount Bonds Amount
(Rs Crore) redeemed redeemed
520 222 511 221
256 114.9 250 114.9
204 101.4 198 91.4
Total : 980 438.3 959 427.3
