Electoral bonds worth Rs 695 crore sold during Assembly elections in 5 states

New Delhi: In a reply to a query filed by Bihar-based RTI activist Kanhaiya Kumar, SBI said that electoral bonds worth Rs 695 crore were sold during the Assembly elections held during March-April in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala.

To date, electoral bonds have been sold in a total of 16 phases. According to the RTI reply, SBI sold 151 bonds worth Rs 42.10 crore between January 1 and January 10 during the 15th phase. Kanhaiya Kumar had filed an RTI application on April 16 and sought information about the sale of electoral bonds in the 15th and 16th phases.

SBI had sold a total of 974 electoral bonds worth Rs 695.34 crore in the 16th phase between April 1 and April 10. This is about 16 times more than the total electoral bond sold in the 15th phase.

According to the reply, the highest number of electoral bonds were sold from SBI's Kolkata Main Branch in West Bengal. From here, a total of 110 bonds were sold in the 15th phase and 348 bonds in the 16th phase, valued at Rs 35.75 crore and Rs 176.19 crore respectively.

Similarly, in the 15th phase, 19 bonds worth Rs 9.10 lakh were sold from Thiruvananthapuram branch, 14 bonds worth Rs 5 crore from Jaipur main branch, and eight bonds worth Rs 1.25 crore from the New Delhi main branch.

It mentioned that that out of the total bonds sold in the 15th phase, 148 bonds have been redeemed except three bonds of one lakh rupees.

During the 16th phase, 156 bonds were sold at Chennai Main Branch in Tamil Nadu, out of which 140 bonds were worth Rs 1 crore and 10 bonds were worth Rs 10 lakh.

A total of 199 bonds were sold at the New Delhi branch, out of which 165 bonds were worth Rs 1 crore, 24 bonds were of Rs 10 lakh and 10 bonds were of Rs 1 lakh. In Assam's Guwahati branch, 37 electoral bonds were also sold, of which one bond was worth Rs 1 crore, 31 bonds were of Rs 10 lakh and five bonds were of Rs 1 lakh.

Apart from these, the Gandhinagar branch sold 24 bonds, Hyderabad Main branch sold 96 bonds, Mumbai branch sold 106 bonds, and Panaji branch sold three bonds.

Information received under RTI also revealed that in the 15th phase, about 80 per cent of the amount came from one crore rupees bonds. During this period, 34 bonds worth Rs 1 crore, 78 bonds worth Rs 10 lakh, 29 bonds worth Rs 1 lakh and 10 bonds worth 10 rupees were sold.

Similarly, in the 16th phase, about 70 per cent of the amount was received from Rs 1 crore bond. During this period, 671 bonds worth Rs 1 crore, 237 bonds worth Rs 10 lakh, 64 bonds worth Rs 1 lakh and two bonds worth Rs 1,000 were sold.

However, SBI declined to name the political parties that encashed the electoral bonds, saying it was "third party personal information" that was exempted under the RTI Act.

The bank also declined to share the details of how much commission it had earned from the sale of electoral bonds.