Lok Sabha Question No. 1863 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-14
Subject: Electoral Bonds
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: Abdul Khaleque, Kotha Prabhakar  Reddy, Balubhau (Alias Suresh Narayan) Dhanorkar, Jasbir Singh Gill

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1863

TO BE ANSWERED ON MONDAY, THE 14 th MARCH, 2022 PHALGUNA 23, 1943 (Saka)

## ELECTORAL BONDS

1863. SHRI ABDUL KHALEQUE:

SHRI KOTHA PRABHAKAR REDDY:

SHRI BALUBHAU ALIAS SURESH NARAYAN DHANORKAR:

SHRI JASBIR SINGH GILL:

Will the Minister of Finance be pleased to state:

- (a) The details of sale as well as encashment of electoral bonds by the political parties along with their amount from 2014 to 2022, year-wise and party-wise along with the future action plan in this regard and the time by which they will be issued;
- (b) The number of issued electoral bonds in the 19 th tranche of electoral bonds, branch-wise and denomination-wise;
- (c) The details and the amount of electoral bonds encashed by the political parties in the 19 th tranche of electoral bonds, party-wise;
- (d) The number of electoral bonds issued to foreign entities since inception; and
- (e) Whether the Government has made any assessment of the electoral bonds with regard to inflow of black money in electoral politics and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF FINANCE (SHRI PANKAJ CHAUDHARY)

- (a) The year-wise details of the amount of Electoral Bond sold and encashed are placed at Annexure I. The details of political party-wise encashment of electoral bonds are not collated centrally at SBI. As per the clause-8  of the Gazette Notification dated 2 nd January 2018, the periodicity of issuance of electoral bonds is as under:
- i. The bonds under this scheme shall be available for purchase by any person for a period of ten days each in the months of January, April, July and October as may be specified by the Central Government.
- ii. An additional period of thirty days shall be specified by the Central Government in the year of general elections to the House of People.
- (b) The details of the number of Electoral Bonds issued in the 19th tranche, branch-wise and denomination-wise are placed at Annexure-II.
- (c) The details of Electoral bonds encashed in the 19 th tranche are placed at Annexure-III . The details of political party-wise encashment of electoral bonds are not collated centrally at SBI.

(d) As  per  clause  3  of  Gazette  Notification  dated  2 nd January  2018  of  Electoral  Bond Scheme, the eligibility to purchase electoral bond is defined as under:

- I. The Bond under this scheme may be purchased by a person, who is citizen of India or incorporated or established in India.
- II. A person being an individual can buy bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals.

Accordingly, no electoral bonds are issued to foreign entities.

(e) The Electoral Bond Scheme is, in fact, an unprecedented step towards cleansing the process  of  funding  of  political  parties  and  major  improvement  over  conventional  practice  of funding  the  political  system  through  donations  in  cash.  The  purchaser  is  allowed  to  buy electoral  bond(s)  only  on  due  fulfillment  of  all  the  extant  instructions  regarding  KYC  norms issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and by making payment from a bank account. All payments for the issuance of the bond are accepted only in Indian rupees, through demand draft or cheque of through Electronic Clearing System or direct debit to the buyer's account.

*****

## Annexure-I

(relates to part a of the question)

| Details of Electoral Bonds sold and encashed (Amount in ₹   | Details of Electoral Bonds sold and encashed (Amount in ₹   | Details of Electoral Bonds sold and encashed (Amount in ₹   |
|-------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------|
| Calendar Year                                               | Electoral Bonds Sold                                        | Electoral Bonds Encashed                                    |
| 2018                                                        | 10,56,73,42,000                                             | 10,45,53,28,000                                             |
| 2019                                                        | 50,71,99,05,000                                             | 50,62,93,87,000                                             |
| 2020                                                        | 3,63,96,01,000                                              | 3,63,96,00,000                                              |
| 2021                                                        | 15,02,29,27,000                                             | 15,02,26,25,000                                             |
| 2022 (Till date)                                            | 12,13,26,01,000                                             | 12,12,86,00,000                                             |

## Annexure-II

(relates to part b of the question)

| Number of Electoral Bond issued branch-wise and denomination-wise in the 19 th Tranche   | Number of Electoral Bond issued branch-wise and denomination-wise in the 19 th Tranche   | Number of Electoral Bond issued branch-wise and denomination-wise in the 19 th Tranche   | Number of Electoral Bond issued branch-wise and denomination-wise in the 19 th Tranche   | Number of Electoral Bond issued branch-wise and denomination-wise in the 19 th Tranche   | Number of Electoral Bond issued branch-wise and denomination-wise in the 19 th Tranche   | Number of Electoral Bond issued branch-wise and denomination-wise in the 19 th Tranche   |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Branch Name                                                                              | One Thousand (OT)                                                                        | Ten Thousand (TT)                                                                        | One Lakh (OL)                                                                            | Ten Lakh (TL)                                                                            | One Crore (OC)                                                                           | Total Bonds                                                                              |
| Bengaluru Main                                                                           | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 20                                                                                       | 0                                                                                        | 20                                                                                       |
| Bhubaneshwar Main Branch                                                                 | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 35                                                                                       | 12                                                                                       | 47                                                                                       |
| Chandigarh Main Branch                                                                   | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 10                                                                                       | 15                                                                                       | 25                                                                                       |
| Chennai Main Branch                                                                      | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 5                                                                                        | 227                                                                                      | 232                                                                                      |
| Gandhinagar                                                                              | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 110                                                                                      | 22                                                                                       | 132                                                                                      |
| Hyderabad Main Branch                                                                    | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 10                                                                                       | 125                                                                                      | 135                                                                                      |
| Jaipur Main Branch                                                                       | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 8                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 8                                                                                        |
| Kolkata Main Branch                                                                      | 1                                                                                        | 10                                                                                       | 157                                                                                      | 189                                                                                      | 134                                                                                      | 491                                                                                      |
| Lucknow Main Branch                                                                      | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 1                                                                                        | 2                                                                                        | 14                                                                                       | 17                                                                                       |
| Mumbai Main Branch                                                                       | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 20                                                                                       | 43                                                                                       | 485                                                                                      | 548                                                                                      |
| New Delhi Main Branch                                                                    | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 12                                                                                       | 35                                                                                       | 114                                                                                      | 161                                                                                      |
| Panaji Branch                                                                            | 0                                                                                        | 0                                                                                        | 175                                                                                      | 69                                                                                       | 8                                                                                        | 252                                                                                      |
| Total                                                                                    | 1                                                                                        | 10                                                                                       | 365                                                                                      | 536                                                                                      | 1156                                                                                     | 2068                                                                                     |

## Annexure-III

(relates to part c of the question)

| Details of amount of Electoral bonds encashed in the 19 th Tranche (Amount in ₹)   | Details of amount of Electoral bonds encashed in the 19 th Tranche (Amount in ₹)   | Details of amount of Electoral bonds encashed in the 19 th Tranche (Amount in ₹)   | Details of amount of Electoral bonds encashed in the 19 th Tranche (Amount in ₹)   | Details of amount of Electoral bonds encashed in the 19 th Tranche (Amount in ₹)   | Details of amount of Electoral bonds encashed in the 19 th Tranche (Amount in ₹)   | Details of amount of Electoral bonds encashed in the 19 th Tranche (Amount in ₹)   |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Branch Name                                                                        | One Thousand (OT)                                                                  | Ten Thousand (TT)                                                                  | One Lakh (OL)                                                                      | Ten Lakh (TL)                                                                      | One Crore (OC)                                                                     | Total Amount                                                                       |
| Bhubaneswar Main Branch                                                            | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | 3,00,00,000                                                                        | 47,00,00,000                                                                       | 50,00,00,000                                                                       |
| Chandigarh Main Branch                                                             | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | 50,00,000                                                                          | -                                                                                  | 50,00,000                                                                          |
| Chennai Main Branch                                                                | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | 1,00,00,00,000                                                                     | 1,00,00,00,000                                                                     |
| Kolkata Main Branch                                                                | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | 30,00,000                                                                          | 11,90,00,000                                                                       | 2,12,00,00,000                                                                     | 2,24,20,00,000                                                                     |
| Lucknow Main Branch                                                                | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | 1,00,000                                                                           | 20,00,000                                                                          | 3,00,00,000                                                                        | 3,21,00,000                                                                        |
| Mumbai Main Branch                                                                 | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | 10,00,000                                                                          | 10,00,000                                                                          | 39,00,00,000                                                                       | 39,20,00,000                                                                       |
| New Delhi Main Branch                                                              | -                                                                                  | 1,00,000                                                                           | 2,84,00,000                                                                        | 37,00,00,000                                                                       | 7,45,00,00,000                                                                     | 7,84,85,00,000                                                                     |
| Pan ji Main Branch                                                                 | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | 40,00,000                                                                          | 50,00,000                                                                          | -                                                                                  | 90,00,000                                                                          |
| Patna Main Branch                                                                  | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | -                                                                                  | 10,00,00,000                                                                       | 10,00,00,000                                                                       |
| Total                                                                              | -                                                                                  | 1,00,000                                                                           | 3,65,00,000                                                                        | 53,20,00,000                                                                       | 11,56,00,00,000                                                                    | 12,12,86,00,000                                                                    |

*****