Government approves sale of electoral bonds from July 1

Tags: National News

The government approved the issuance of the 21st tranche of electoral bonds that will open for sale from July 1.

• In the 21st phase of sale, State Bank of India has been authorised to issue electoral bonds through its 29 authorised branches with effect from July 1 to July 10.

• An electoral bond will be valid for 15 days from the date of issue.

• No payment would be made to any political party, if the bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period.

• The authorised SBI branches are in Lucknow, Shimla, Dehradun, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, and Mumbai.

• The 20th tranche of electoral bond sales took place from April 1 to April 10, 2022.

• The sale of the first batch of electoral bonds was initiated from March 1-10, 2018.

• SBI is the only authorised bank which issues Electoral Bonds.

• What are Electoral Bonds?

• It was introduced in the Finance Bill, 2017, the Electoral Bond Scheme was notified on January 29, 2018.

• It is just like a promissory note that may be purchased by a person who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India. 

• Bonds are available for purchase by any person (who is a citizen of India) for a period of ten days each in the months of January, April, July and October.

• A person can buy bonds either singly or jointly with other persons.

• These are issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore without any maximum limit.

• The main objective of the electoral bond scheme was to bring transparency in electoral funding in India.

• Only registered Political Parties which secured not less than one percent of the votes polled in the last General Election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State, shall be eligible to receive the Electoral Bonds.