Eligible individuals, entities have purchased electoral bonds worth over Rs 9,200 cr: Govt
New Delhi: The government on Tuesday informed the Rajya Sabha that electoral bonds worth Rs 9,208.24 crore have been purchased by eligible individuals and entities.
The Electoral Bond Scheme 2018, was notified by the government on January 2, 2018.
Citing data provided by the Department of Economic Affairs under the Ministry of Finance, Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh said that "so far, (till completion of the XIX phase) electoral bonds amounting to Rs 9,208.24 crore" have been purchased from the authorised bank, State Bank of India, by eligible individuals and entities.
Under the provisions of Section 182 of the Companies Act, 2013, companies, other than government companies and those less than three years old, are allowed directly or indirectly to contribute to any political party with the approval of their respective board of directors.
"Such companies shall have to disclose in its profit and loss account the total amount contributed by them during the financial year to which the account relates and the name of the party is not required to be disclosed. Therefore, political party-wise data is not maintained," the minister said in a written reply.
Singh, who is the Minister of State for Corporate Affairs, was responding to a query about the total amount contributed to political parties by companies in the last three years.
The minister also said electoral bonds can be purchased by a person, who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India. Also, a person being an individual can buy bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals. "Accordingly, no electoral bonds are issued to foreign entities," he added.
Meanwhile, electoral bonds worth Rs 324.36 cr were encashed by various political parties in 2020-21, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed Parliament on Tuesday.
State Bank of India is the authorised bank to issue and encash electoral bonds.
The political party-wise detail of electoral bonds encashment is not collated centrally at SBI, he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
During 2020-21, 14th and 15 tranches of electoral bonds were issued and encashed.
In another reply, Chaudhary said the electoral bonds amounting to Rs 1,212.86 crore were encashed by political parties in the 19th tranche of electoral bonds.
The Indian rupee was one of the better performing currencies amongst other Asian currencies like South Korean Won, Philippines Peso, Thai Baht and Japanese Yen during the last few quarters, he said in a reply to another question.
