As per the recent Right to Information (RTI) reply by State Bank of India (SBI), around 65 per cent of all electoral bonds sold since 2018 were in SBI’s Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad branches. Further, as per the reply, the maximum number of bonds, 62 per cent, were encashed at the New Delhi branch.
Since the launch of the scheme in 2018, electoral bonds worth Rs 10,791.47 crore were sold across 17 SBI branches, though 29 SBI branches are authorized to sell them, according to a report. Indian Express, This information was based on data from March 2018, when the first tranche was sold, to the most recent phase of data available (October 1-10, 2022).
Mumbai (Rs 2,742.12 crore), Kolkata (Rs 2,387.71 crore) and Hyderabad (Rs 1,885.35 crore) were the top three branches where electoral bonds were bought, according to the SBI reply to transparency campaigner Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd) on November 23. shows from the data. The report said.
The New Delhi branch sold bonds worth Rs 1,519.44 crore in the time period, but it topped the list with maximum bond redemptions of Rs 6,748.97 crore. Hyderabad and Kolkata are on the second spot with Rs 1,384.03 crore and Rs 1,012.98 crore respectively.
The bonds have so far been encashed at 14 regional branches, including Srinagar (Rs 50 lakh) and Gangtok (Rs 2.50 crore), though zero sales have been observed in both the branches. Indian Express,
The Electoral Bonds scheme, launched in March 2018, was revised by the Union finance ministry in November to allow sale for a longer period in a year and the government can now notify an additional 15 days of sale in any year coinciding with assembly elections. apart from the usual four 10-day windows.
The 23rd installment went on sale from November 9 to November 15 this year.
Terming the scheme as “opaque”, Batra said SBI data showed that 93.67 per cent of the bonds sold so far were of Rs 1 crore denomination, which is reportedly the largest available under the scheme.
Meanwhile, the Center had in October defended the scheme in the Supreme Court, saying it was the most “transparent” way for political funding and had “no scope for black money”.
The court was hearing a petition filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal had argued that electoral bonds are an opaque structure and there is a need for more transparency. Sibal said, “On the opaque manner of funding of political parties… This is a matter which will be heard by a larger bench.”
The Supreme Court had said it would examine on December 6 whether petitions challenging laws allowing funding of political parties through the electoral bond scheme should be referred to a larger bench.
The matter last came up in court on March 26, 2021, when a bench headed by the then Chief Justice of India SA Bobde dismissed an application filed by ADR, seeking a ban on any fresh sale of electoral bonds ahead of the assembly elections. There was a demand for a ban. payable at that time.
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