The government has approved the issuance of the 21st tranche of electoral bonds, which will open for sale from July 1. The bonds will be available for purchase between July 1 and July 10. The 20th tranche of the bond sale took place from April 1 to April 1. April 10, 2022. Here’s what electoral bonds are and how you can buy them:
What are electoral bonds?
In an effort to bring transparency in political donations, electoral bonds have been introduced as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties. Any citizen of these bonds can buy India or an entity incorporated or established in the country. An individual can purchase bonds either singly or jointly with other persons. The buyer will be allowed to purchase the Electoral Bonds only if he fulfills all the extant KYC norms and makes payment from the bank account. It will not contain the name of the recipient.
The bonds are available for purchase in the months of January, April, July and October for tenors of 10 days each. Electoral bonds can now be bought between July 1 and July 10.
Only political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and having secured at least one per cent of the votes polled in the previous Lok Sabha or State elections, are eligible to receive electoral bonds.
Bonds were introduced in 2017 to clean up the system of political funding in the country. In his budget speech on February 1, 2017, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said: “Even after 70 years of independence, the country has not been able to develop a transparent method of funding political parties which is the key to a free and fair election system. Important. … Political parties get most of their money through anonymous donations which are shown in cash. Hence, efforts need to be made to clean up the political donation system in India.”
Where can you buy electoral bonds?
The bonds can be purchased in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore from 29 authorized branches of state-owned State Bank of India (SBI). Authorized SBI branches are in Lucknow, Shimla, Dehradun Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur and Mumbai.
The receiving political party can encash the bond within 15 days from the date of issue. If the bonds are not redeemed within 15 days, no payment is made to the party. The redeemed amount is credited to the account of the political party on the same day the bond is deposited in the bank. Electoral Bonds will be encashed only through the bank account of a bank authorized by an eligible political party.
Electoral Bonds can be purchased from any authorized branch of SBI through digital payment or cheque. Cash is not allowed. The donor can then hand over the bonds to the political party of his choice, which can encave them within 15 days from the date of issue.
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