Electoral bonds worth Rs 812.80 crore sold in latest edition of sale

Electoral bonds worth Rs 812.80 crore were sold during the 27th edition of the sale of the financial instrument in July, with parties encashing all bonds except for Rs 5.01 lakh.

Since 2018 when the electoral bond came into being, there were 27 phases of sales, including the latest, during which bonds worth Rs 13,791.89 crore have been sold. The bonds which were not encashed was Rs 23.88 crore and were transferred to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

In the previous edition of bond sale in April this year, electoral bonds worth Rs 970.50 crore were sold and parties encashed all the bonds except for Rs 15 lakh.

According to information received through RTI by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retired) for the 27th edition of bond sale between July 3 and 12, the SBI has sold 1,371 bonds out of which 773 bonds or 56.38 per cent were of Rs 1 crore denomination. It also sold 220 bonds of Rs 1 lakh each, 376 bonds of Rs 10 lakh each and two bonds of Rs 10,000 each.

Hyderabad branch recorded the highest sale of bonds worth Rs 266.72 crore followed by Kolkata Rs 143.20 crore and Mumbai branch Rs 135 crore. The Bengaluru branch sold bonds worth Rs 46 crore.

When it came to encashing the bonds, the Bhubaneswar branch was on the top with parties encashing bonds worth Rs 155.50 crore followed by the New Delhi branch where bonds worth Rs 117.58 crore were encashed.

In its reply to Batra, the SBI also said that 25 political parties have opened their account for the purpose of encashing electoral bonds till date. Accounts are being opened at branches after obtaining proper approval, it said.

Ruling BJP’s income rose by 154.82% to touch Rs 1,917.12 crore in 2021-22 against the previous fiscal, with close to 54% of it coming from the controversial electoral bonds, according to Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). It said 55.09% or Rs 1811.94 crore of the total donations received by BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress and NCP were through electoral bonds while four other national parties CPI(M), CPI, BSP and NPP did not receive any funds through this instrument.