Parties got 99% donations through electoral bonds of ₹10 lakh, ₹1 crore
1 min read . Updated: 14 Apr 2019, 07:24 PM IST
Premium- The donors bought 1,459 electoral bonds of denomination of ₹10 lakh and 1,258 bonds of ₹1 crore denomination
- Electoral bonds worth ₹1,395.89 crore were redeemed by the parties
Indore: A whopping 99.8% of donations received by political parties was through electoral bonds of the highest denominations — ₹10 lakh and ₹1 crore — between March 2018 and 24 January 2019, revealed data obtained under the RTI Act.
Donors purchased bonds worth ₹1,407.09 crore of which ₹1,403.90 crore were in the highest denominations of ₹10 lakh and ₹1 crore during the period.
Social worker Chandrashekhar Goud shared the data received from State Bank of India (SBI) through an RTI query.
The donors bought 1,459 electoral bonds of denomination of ₹10 lakh and 1,258 bonds of ₹1 crore denomination. They purchased 318 bonds of ₹1 lakh, 12 bonds of ₹10,000 and 24 bonds of ₹1000 denomination, according to the RTI reply.
Electoral bonds worth ₹1,395.89 crore were redeemed by the parties. Gaud had also asked the bank how many parties redeemed the bonds and worth how much money, but the SBI did not disclose it, saying it was in fiduciary capacity disclosure which is exempted under Section 8 (1) (e) and (j) of the RTI Act.
Electoral bonds were sold by the State Bank of India (SBI) in seven tranches. They were sold in five denominations of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakh, and ₹1 crore.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a voluntary organisation, working for political reforms, had approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay order on the sale of electoral bonds.
On Friday,the Supreme Court refused to suspend the political funding through electoral bonds but, did introduce conditions to bring transparency in the process.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
