Electoral bonds worth Rs 1,213.26 sold during January phase: RTI

Electoral bonds worth Rs 1,213.26 crore were sold and the whole redeemed by parties except for bonds worth Rs 40 lakh, during the latest round of bond sale in early January, according to an RTI response.

Bonds worth Rs 1,212.86 crore were encashed leaving bonds worth Rs 40 lakh, which were transferred to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund.

In the previous 18th phase in October last year, bonds worth Rs 614.33 crore were sold and the whole redeemed. In July, when 17th phase of bond sale took place, Rs 150.51 crore were sold and the whole redeemed. In April, bonds worth Rs 695.34 crore were sold and only two bonds worth Rs 1,000 each were not redeemed.

According to the RTI response provided by the SBI to transparency activist Lokesh Batra on Friday, the highest sale was in the Mumbai branch of the SBI where bonds worth Rs 489.50 crore were sold between January 1 and 10.

Chennai Main branch came second with Rs 227.50 crore sale followed by Kolkata branch where the bond sale was Rs 154.48 crore. There were sales of bonds in SBI branches in Hyderabad (Rs 126 crore), New Delhi (Rs 117.62 crore), Gandhinagar (Rs 33 crore), Chandigarh (Rs 16 crore), Panaji (Rs 16.65 crore), Bhubaneswar (Rs 15.50 crore), Lucknow (14.21 crore), Bengaluru (Rs 2 crore) and Jaipur (Rs 80 lakh).

Also read: At Rs 4,847.78 crore, BJP's assets more than all parties' wealth put together: ADR

When it comes to redeeming the bonds, the highest was in the Delhi branch of the SBI where bonds worth Rs 784.85 crore were redeemed followed by Kolkata (Rs 224.20 crore), Chennai branch (Rs 100 crore) There were sales of bonds in Bhubaneswar (Rs 50 crore), Chandigarh (Rs 50 lakh), Lucknow (Rs 3.21 crore), Mumbai (Rs 39.20 crore), Patna (Rs 10 crore) and Panaji (Rs 90 lakh).

The 19th phase of electoral bond sale came ahead of the Assembly elections to five states -- Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Punjab.

Since 2018, when the electoral bonds were itroduced, there were 19 phases of sales, including the latest, during which bonds worth Rs 9,208.23 crore have been sold while Rs 9,187.65 crore were encashed. The bonds that were not encashed were of Rs 20.68 crore.

In 2019-20, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) reported, four national parties -- BJP, Congress, Trinamool Congress and NCP -- and 14 regional parties together garnered Rs 3,441.31 crore through electoral bonds.

According to ADR, 62.92 per cent (Rs 2,993.82 crore) of the total income of the four national parties came from donations through electoral bonds. Ruling BJP's income rose by 50.34 per cent to Rs 3,623.28 crore in 2019-20 with the bulk coming from the redemption of electoral bonds while three other national parties CPI(M), CPI and BSP did not receive any donation through electoral bonds.

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