India Security Press delivered over 8k electoral bonds worth Rs 1 crore each after SC declared it 'unconstitutional'

New Delhi: The India Security Press in Nashik supplied 8,350 electoral bonds worth Rs one crore each to the authorities on February 21, six days after the Supreme Court declared the financial instrument as "unconstitutional", RTI responses showed on Thursday.

Before this, the last time the Nashik Press had printed and supplied electoral bonds was on 18 August, 2022 when it delivered 10,000 bonds of Rs one crore denomination.

In response to RTI queries by transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra (retired), the India Security Press in Nashik provided details of electoral bonds it printed and supplied, with dates from 1 March, 2018, to February 21 this year.

It showed that on February 21, it supplied 8,350 bonds of Rs one crore denomination. The RTI query also showed that Rs 1.93 crore was levied as GST.

With this, the government had printed 33,000 electoral bonds of Rs one crore denomination. It also showed a total of 6.82 lakh electoral bonds printed since its inception in 2018. 

Batra said the Nashik Press has not provided him a response to his query seeking information on the requisition order received from the government or SBI for printing and supplying of electoral bonds.

Bond Denomination and Sale

Rs 1,000: 159 sold out of 2.65 lakh printed

Rs 10,000: 264 sold out of 2.65 lakh printed

Rs 1 lakh: 3,453 sold out of 93,000 printed

Rs 10 lakh: 8,523 sold out of  26,600 printed

Rs 1 crore: 15,631 sold out of 33,000 printed