Do you know what is Electoral Bond – Read some facts about it

As 2019 is the year of Lok Sabha Election in India so the central government had announced to launch electoral bonds during the budget of the financial year 2017-18. This initiative was taken to ensure transparency in the election funding of the political parties.

The Central Government has introduced Electoral Bonds worth Rs. 1,000, Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1 lakh, Rs. 10 lakh and Rs. 1 cr to bring transparency in the election funding of the political parties in 2018. These bonds can be bought from selected branches of State Bank of India.

Here we are sharing you some of the important facts about the Electoral Bonds that will help you to understand more about them :

Electoral Bond Definition: Electoral Bond refers to a bond which has its specified face value, mentioned on it like a currency note. These bonds can be used by individuals, institutions, and organizations to donate money to political parties.

These electoral bonds will be available in the denomination of Rs. 1,000, Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1 lac, Rs. 10 lacs and Rs. 1 crore. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced all guidelines related to Electoral Bonds in the Lok Sabha in January 2018.

Facts About Electoral Bonds –

• Any citizen or institution or any company in India can purchase electoral bonds to fund registered political parties.
• These electoral bonds will be available in the denomination of Rs. 1,000, Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1 lac, Rs. 10 lacs and Rs. 1 crore.
• Every party which is registered under section 29A of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 and has secured at least 1% votes polled in the most recent Lok Sabha or State election will be eligible to receive fund through electoral bonds.
• Every donor has to provide his KYC detail to the banks.
• Name of the electoral bond purchaser will be kept confidential by the banks.
• Electoral bonds will be valid for 15 days from the date of purchase.
• No interest will be given by the banks on these bonds.
• These bonds can be bought from selected branches of State Bank of India only.
• The banks will have full information about the purchasers of the Electoral bonds.
• The bonds will be available for purchase for a period of 10 days each at the beginning of every quarter. In the year of Lok Sabha elections; 30 days extra will be provided.
• Bonds can be purchased in January, April, July and October months of each year.
• Political parties will also have to inform election commission that how much money they got from Electoral bonds.

Before the budget of 2017, it was a rule that if a political party gets a donation of less than Rs. 20,000 from a donor, then it was not mandatory to reveal the source of fund. This rule was misused and near about all the political parties said that they received 90% of their political fund in the denomination of less than Rs. 20000. So in this way, a huge amount of black money generated and used in the election campaigning. On the basis of the recommendation of the Election Commission, the government had reduced the limit of an anonymous donation to Rs. 2000 only in budget 2017. It means; for a donation of more than Rs.2000, the political party will have to reveal the source of the donation.

In the end, it can be said that the release of electoral bonds will restrict the generation of black money up to some extent. Now People will come to know that which party is receiving the maximum amount from the donation and who are the donors of the fund.