[orc]Data obtained from SBI under the RTI act suggests that 25 electoral bonds worth more than ₹11 crore were not encashed. In terms of value, more than 95% of the bonds were encashed in Delhi.
The Electoral Bonds were first announced in the 2017-18 budget and the scheme was subsequently notified in January 2018. Factly had earlier written about the bonds, their impact on transparency etc.
Factly had also analysed the data obtained from the State Bank of India (SBI), the authorized bank to issue electoral bonds, about bonds purchased in the first four sale cycles in March, April, May & July 2018 to conclude that there was hardly any demand for electoral bonds of lower denomination. Data now obtained from SBI regarding encashment of electoral bonds suggests that electoral bonds worth more than Rs 11 crore were not encashed.
Electoral Bonds have to be encashed within 15 days
As per the notification of the electoral bond scheme, purchased bonds can be encashed only by an eligible political party by depositing it in their bank account. The scheme guidelines also mention that the amount not encashed within fifteen days will be deposited by SBI to the Prime Minister Relief Fund.
Twenty five (25) bonds not encashed till date
As per data shared by SBI in response to an application under Right to Information (RTI), a total of 25 bonds were not encashed by political parties. In other words, this also means that the ones who purchased these 25 bonds did not donate them to any political party. Each & every electoral bond that was bought is encashed except 14 bonds in the denomination of ₹1000 and 11 bonds in the denomination of ₹1 crore. Out of a total of 1062 electoral bonds bought till the July cycle, 1037 are encashed. In terms of value, out of the ₹470.8 crore worth electoral bonds bought so far, bonds worth ₹459.8 crore are encashed while bonds worth ₹11.0014 crore are not encashed. Hence this amount could have been deposited to the Prime Minister Relief Fund.
More than 93% of the bonds encashed in Delhi
As per the data shared by SBI, more than 93% of the total bonds encashed till date were encashed in Delhi. Out of the 1037 electoral bonds encashed till date, 967 were encashed in Delhi while 64 of them in Kolkata and the remaining 6 in Bangalore. Not a single bond was encashed in Mumbai where 290 bonds were bought. Similarly, not a single bond was encashed in Chennai, Gandhinagar & Guwahati, where many electoral bonds were bought.
In terms of value, 95.5% of the bonds amounting to ₹439.3 crore were encashed in Delhi while around 4% were encashed in Kolkata and a mere 0.33% in Bangalore. Such disproportionate encashment in Delhi suggests that majority of these bonds were donated to national political parties and not regional parties whose offices are usually not in Delhi.
