Electoral bonds worth Rs 614 crore sold in October

Electoral bonds worth Rs 614 crore sold in October

Electoral bonds worth Rs 614 crore sold in October

Political parties are getting donations from donors Even during the non-election period. According to State Bank of India (SBI) data, he received electoral bonds worth Rs 614.33 crore from donors in October.

While bonds worth Rs 200 crore were sold by SBI’s Kolkata main branch, bonds worth Rs 195 crore were sold by the bank’s Chennai branch. This was followed by the Hyderabad branch of SBI, which sold bonds worth Rs 140 crore.

In the last sale held in July this year, political parties got Rs 150 crore.

In an RTI reply, SBI, the only bank authorized to sell these bonds, had bonds worth Rs 593 crore each with a face value of Rs 1 crore and Rs 18.90 crore bonds with a face value of Rs 10 lakh . Application filed by Commodore Lokesh K Batra (Retd).

According to SBI, the 18th tranche of bond sales took place between October 1 and 10.

With this, political parties have received a total of Rs 7,994 crore from donors, mainly corporate houses and industrialists, for "election funding" in 18 phases. The 6,812 bonds issued so far were worth Rs 1 crore.

In April 2021, when the election process was in full swing in four states and one union territory, SBI sold bonds worth Rs 695.34 crore to donors of parties. The Supreme Court had refused to stay the sale of electoral bonds on a PIL filed by an NGO alleging lack of transparency and funding of parties ahead of the last assembly elections.

Electoral bonds are purchased anonymously by donors and are valid for 15 days from the date of issue.