Both the BJP & Congress submit details of Electoral Bond donors after the Supreme Court's due date﻿
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
August 14, 2019
A total of 11,782 electoral bonds are purchased amounting to a total of ₹  5896.7 crores
till July 2019. More than 80% of these bonds were redeemed in Delhi alone.
The Electoral Bond scheme were first announced in the 2017-18 budget andthe scheme was subsequently notified inJanuary 2018.  Factly had earlier written about the bonds, their impact on transparency, what’s wrong with
these bonds among other things.
Since March 2018 (the first phase), there have been 11 phases (till July2019) when the bonds were available for purchase. Factly has obtained data onthe number & quantum of bonds purchased in all these 11 phases. Here aresome of the highlights of the 11 phases between March 2018 and July 2019.
More than ₹ 100 crores worth bonds purchased in 9 of the 11 phases
In the 11 phases till July 2019, bonds worth more than ₹ 100 crores each were purchased in 9of the 11 phases. Bonds worth more than ₹ 250 crores each were purchased in 5of the 11 phases while bonds worth more than ₹ 500 crores each were purchased in 3of the 11 phases, all during the general elections to the Lok Sabha.
In 3 of the 11 phases, each and every bond purchased was redeemed. Inall the 11 phases, a total of 140 bonds worth ₹ 20.25 crores were not redeemed andas per rules, they were deposited in the PMNRF. In May 2018, bonds worth ₹ 10 crores were not redeemedfollowed by more than ₹ 5 crores in April 2019 and more than ₹ 3 crores in May 2019. It also lookslike the Government condoned
the delay in certain cases because as per data received from SBI earlier,bonds worth more than ₹ 30 crores were not redeemed by the end of the first 10 phases.
More than 80% of the bonds redeemed in Delhi alone
Till July 2019, electoral bonds were purchased in a total of 16 cities.Bonds worth more than ₹ 10 crores each were purchased in a total of 12 cities and bonds worthmore than ₹ 100 crores each in 8 of the 16 cities. In only 4 of these 16 cities,bonds worth more than ₹ 500 crores each were purchased. These four cities of Mumbai, Kolkata,New Delhi & Hyderabad accounted for a total of 82.7% of all the bondspurchased by value.
When it comes to redemption of bonds, the trend is completely different. Only in Delhi, bonds worth more than ₹ 4731 crores were redeemed, which is a whopping 80.5% of all the redeemed bonds. The next best is Hyderabad where 8.7% of the total bonds were redeemed. More than 1% of the value of the bonds were redeemed in only each of the three other cities of Kolkata, Mumbai & Bhubaneshwar.
National Parties, the principal beneficiaries
As per the guidelines of the scheme, no political party can have more than one current account in SBIfor the redemption of these bonds. So it is natural that the national partiesmaintain such a current account in Delhi while the regional parties in therespective state capitals. So in other words, it is quite possible that all ofthe bonds redeemed in Delhi would have gone to the national parties.
BJP & Congress both submit
details after the Supreme Court due date
The Supreme Court (SC) had in April2019 passed interim directions on the issue of ‘Electoral Bonds’and mandated political parties to disclose in a sealed cover to the ElectionCommission of India (ECI), the names of donors of these bonds by 30 May 2019. (Watch this
video to learn more about the Political Funding in India).
As per data furnished by the ECI inresponse to an application under RTI, both the BJP & Congress submitteddetails of the donors of electoral bonds after the due date of 30 May 2019. Ofthe 7 national parties, the Trinamool Congress, BSP, CPI & NCP submittedthe details before the due date while BJP, Congress & the CPI(M) submittedafter the due date.
A total of 19 state partiessubmitted the electoral bond donor details to the ECI as on date. Below are thedetails of submission.
In addition, around 64 registeredbut unrecognized parties also submitted the electoral bond donor details to theECI.