Govt printed 2.65 lakh electoral bonds of Rs 1,000 and Rs 10,000 each but sold only 118 since 2018

The government incurred a cost of Rs 1.86 crore for printing of bonds, paid Rs 3.47 crore as commission to SBI

The Centre printed 2.65 lakh electoral bonds each with a value of Rs 1,000 and Rs 10,000 but only 118 such bonds were sold since 2018, raising questions about the scheme's poor planning and implementation.

The printing of the electoral bonds in various values cost the government around Rs 1.86 crore, with an analysis of RTI responses showing that the printing of one piece of bond cost Rs 28 on average.

The analysis of RTIs by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd) showed that 6,64,250 electoral bonds — valued at Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore — were printed in two installments in 2018 and 2019.

"There is a huge wastage of money in printing electoral bonds of Rs 1,000 and Rs 10,000. In each case, 2.65 lakh bonds were printed and the number of bonds sold was very low. It speaks of poor planning by the government in operationalizing electoral bonds in a hurry by violating many norms. One has to note that the cost of printing electoral bonds and paying commission to SBI for bond sale is paid by the government, which means it is taxpayers' money," Batra said.

SBI has levied Rs 3.47 crore as a commission on the government for the sale and management of electoral bonds.

During the 14 phases of the electoral bond sale so far, the latest being in October this year just before Bihar elections, only 48 bonds worth Rs 1,000 and 70 bonds worth Rs 10,000 were sold, indicating that the lower denomination bonds are not favoured by the buyers.

The RTIs filed by Batra also showed that 1,729 bonds worth Rs 1 lakh, 5,023 bonds worth Rs 10 lakh and 5,981 bonds worth Rs 1 crore were sold since the inception of the controversial bonds in 2018.

In the 14th edition alone, only one Rs 1,000 bond was sold and not a single Rs 10,000 bond was sold. Nine bonds worth Rs 1 lakh each, 32 worth Rs 10 lakh each and 279 worth Rs 1 crore each were sold during this time.

According to Batra's RTI, 2.65 lakh bonds each of Rs 1,000 and Rs 10,000 were printed in 2018 but no bonds of these two values were printed in 2019. In a letter to the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in August 2017, the BJP had demanded from the government to introduce bonds of lower denominations — Rs 2,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000. Batra added that the ruling party's demand had led to printing bonds with small values that "resulted in huge wastage".

The RTIs also showed that 4,650 bonds of Rs 1 crore each were printed in 2018 while another 10,000 were printed the following year. The number of bonds valued at Rs 1 lakh printed in 2018 stood at 53,000 and 40,000 in 2019. About 16,600 bonds of Rs 10 lakh value were printed in 2018, and 10,000 more were printed in 2019.

Altogether, 12,773 bonds worth Rs 6,492.68 crore were sold with the ruling BJP cornering a majority. The Opposition and activists have alleged that the electoral bond scheme was an opaque way of political funding in which parties are not required to disclose donors.