Electoral bonds worth Rs 9,188 crore redeemed by political parties

BJP National President Amit Shah during a roadshow for the last phase of Lok Sabha elections 2019, in Kolkata. (Image: PTI)

India’s various political parties have redeemed electoral bonds worth Rs 9,188 crore after they were introduced in 2018, the finance ministry told Parliament on April 5.

The electoral bonds scheme, notified by the government in January 2018, has come under fire, with its critics alleging that its makes political donations opaque.

The Supreme Court, had last year, refused to stay their issuance, saying there were sufficient safeguards in place to prevent misuse.

On April 5, however, the apex court said it would consider hearing a petition filed by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) against the laws authorising the issuance of electoral bonds. A non-government organisation, ADR advocates electoral and political reforms.

"If it was not for COVID, we would have heard these matters...", Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said.

The CJI’s comment came after IFB Agro Industries said in an exchange filing on April 1 that it was facing "excise related issues".

The Kolkata-based distillery's board had in its meeting on March 31 approved "contributions to political parties by way of subscription to the electoral bonds in one or more tranches aggregating not more than Rs 40 crores for the financial year 2022-23".

With electoral bonds being an anonymous route to making donations to political parties, IFB Agro's exchange filing is out of the ordinary.

In a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha on April 5, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the government had not received "any complaints about irregularities and pressures in issuing electoral bonds till date".

Chaudhary said the details of encashment of electoral bonds was collated centrally at State Bank of India, which is authorised to issue and encash these bonds.

While electoral bonds worth Rs 9,188 crore have been encashed so far, bonds worth Rs 9,208 crore have been sold. As such, 0.2 percent of electoral bonds—in value terms—have not been encashed by political parties.

An electoral bond is valid for 15 days from the date of issue.

Here is the breakdown of electoral bonds issued and encashed over the years: