Question : Electoral Bonds

(a) The details of sale as well as encashment of electoral bonds by the political parties along with their amount from 2014 to 2022, year-wise and party-wise along with the future action plan in this regard and the time by which they will be issued;
(b) The number of issued electoral bonds in the 19th tranche of electoral bonds, branch-wise and denomination-wise;
(c) The details and the amount of electoral bonds encashed by the political parties in the 19th tranche of electoral bonds, party-wise;
(d) The number of electoral bonds issued to foreign entities since inception; and
(e) Whether the Government has made any assessment of the electoral bonds with regard to inflow of black money in electoral politics and if so, the details thereof?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE
(SHRI PANKAJ CHAUDHARY)

(a) The year-wise details of the amount of Electoral Bond sold and encashed are placed at Annexure I. The details of political party-wise encashment of electoral bonds are not collated centrally at SBI. As per the clause-8 of the Gazette Notification dated 2nd January 2018, the periodicity of issuance of electoral bonds is as under:

i. The bonds under this scheme shall be available for purchase by any person for a period of ten days each in the months of January, April, July and October as may be specified by the Central Government.
ii. An additional period of thirty days shall be specified by the Central Government in the year of general elections to the House of People.

(b) The details of the number of Electoral Bonds issued in the 19th tranche, branch-wise and denomination-wise are placed at Annexure-II.

(c) The details of Electoral bonds encashed in the 19th tranche are placed at Annexure-III. The details of political party-wise encashment of electoral bonds are not collated centrally at SBI.


(d) As per clause 3 of Gazette Notification dated 2nd January 2018 of Electoral Bond Scheme, the eligibility to purchase electoral bond is defined as under:
I. The Bond under this scheme may be purchased by a person, who is citizen of India or incorporated or established in India.
II. A person being an individual can buy bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals.

Accordingly, no electoral bonds are issued to foreign entities.

(e) The Electoral Bond Scheme is, in fact, an unprecedented step towards cleansing the process of funding of political parties and major improvement over conventional practice of funding the political system through donations in cash. The purchaser is allowed to buy electoral bond(s) only on due fulfillment of all the extant instructions regarding KYC norms issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and by making payment from a bank account. All payments for the issuance of the bond are accepted only in Indian rupees, through demand draft or cheque of through Electronic Clearing System or direct debit to the buyer’s account.
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Annexure-I
(relates to part a of the question)

Details of Electoral Bonds sold and encashed
(Amount in ?)
Calendar Year Electoral Bonds Sold Electoral Bonds Encashed
2018 10,56,73,42,000 10,45,53,28,000
2019 50,71,99,05,000 50,62,93,87,000
2020 3,63,96,01,000 3,63,96,00,000
2021 15,02,29,27,000 15,02,26,25,000
2022(Till date) 12,13,26,01,000 12,12,86,00,000

Annexure-II
(relates to part b of the question)
Number of Electoral Bond issued branch-wise and denomination-wise in the 19th Tranche
Branch
Name One Thousand(OT) Ten Thousand(TT) One Lakh(OL) Ten Lakh (TL) One Crore(OC) TotalBonds
Bengaluru Main 0 0 0 20 0 20
Bhubaneshwar Main Branch 0 0 0 35 12 47
Chandigarh Main Branch 0 0 0 10 15 25
Chennai Main Branch 0 0 0 5 227 232
Gandhinagar 0 0 0 110 22 132
Hyderabad Main Branch 0 0 0 10 125 135
Jaipur Main Branch 0 0 0 8 0 8
Kolkata Main Branch 1 10 157 189 134 491
Lucknow Main Branch 0 0 1 2 14 17
Mumbai Main Branch 0 0 20 43 485 548
New Delhi Main Branch 0 0 12 35 114 161
Panaji Branch 0 0 175 69 8 252
Total 1 10 365 536 1156 2068

Annexure-III
(relates to part c of the question)
Details of amount of Electoral bonds encashed in the 19th Tranche
(Amount in ?)
Branch
Name One Ten One Lakh Ten Lakh One Crore Total
Thousand Thousand (OL) (TL) (OC) Amount
(OT) (TT)
Bhubaneswar Main Branch - - - 3,00,00,000 47,00,00,000 50,00,00,000
Chandigarh Main Branch - - - 50,00,000 - 50,00,000
Chennai Main Branch - - - 1,00,00,00,000 1,00,00,00,000
Kolkata Main Branch - - 30,00,000 1,90,00,000 2,12,00,00,000 2,24,20,00,000
Lucknow Main Branch - - 1,00,000 20,00,000 3,00,00,000 3,21,00,000
Mumbai Main Branch - - 10,00,000 10,00,000 39,00,00,000 39,20,00,000
New Delhi Main Branch - 1,00,000 2,84,00,000 37,00,00,000 7,45,00,00,000 7,84,85,00,000
Pan ji Main Branch - - 40,00,000 50,00,000 - 90,00,000
Patna Main Branch - - - - 10,00,00,000 10,00,00,000
Total - 1,00,000 3,65,00,000 53,20,00,000 11,56,00,00,000 12,12,86,00,000

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