{"id":107629,"date":"2021-05-19T18:12:15","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T12:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=107629"},"modified":"2021-05-19T21:44:20","modified_gmt":"2021-05-19T16:14:20","slug":"rti-reveals-details-of-electoral-bonds-sale-during-the-recent-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/rti-reveals-details-of-electoral-bonds-sale-during-the-recent-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"RTI reveals details of &#8220;Electoral bonds&#8221; sale during the recent elections"},"content":{"rendered":"<h5><\/h5>\n<h5><strong>What is the News?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<p>State Bank of India(SBI) has provided information on the sale of <a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/supreme-court-allows-sale-of-electoral-bonds\/\">electoral bonds<\/a> during the recent assembly elections. This was provided after a Right to Information(RTI) application was filed.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Key Highlights from the Sale of Electoral Bonds:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>During the Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala polls,\u00a0<strong>electoral bonds <\/strong>worth \u20b9695 crore were sold from April 1 to 10, 2021<\/li>\n<li><strong>This is the highest ever amount sold <\/strong>for any Assembly elections since the scheme started in 2018.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The sale of electoral bonds <\/strong>was also more than 16 times the sale of electoral bonds during the previous sales in early January 2021.<\/li>\n<li><strong>The highest amounts were sold<\/strong> at the Kolkata branch. This is followed by the New Delhi and Chennai branch of SBI.<\/li>\n<li><strong>However, the SBI has declined<\/strong> to name the political parties that have withdrawn the bonds. It said that this was third party personal information. So, it is exempted under the RTI Act.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Moreover, the bank has also declined to share the details<\/strong> of how much commission it had earned from the sale of bonds since the scheme started in 2018. It said that this information was of <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">commercial confidence in nature.\u00a0<\/span>The bank also stated that the disclosure would harm the competitive position of the bank.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>What are Electoral Bonds?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Firstly, <\/strong>the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/electoral-bond-scheme\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Electoral Bonds<\/a> are the non-interest-bearing financial instruments. These bonds allow\u00a0<strong>eligible donors<\/strong>\u00a0to pay\u00a0<strong>eligible political parties<\/strong>\u00a0using banks as an intermediary. The Electoral Bonds aim to ensure transparency in the funding of political parties.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Secondly<\/strong>, they were introduced by the Government of India by the Finance Bill, 2017.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Thirdly, the State Bank of India (SBI) <\/strong>issues electoral bonds in the months of\u00a0<strong>January, April, July, and October<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fourthly, <\/strong>the electoral bonds are available in <strong>denominations<\/strong> of \u20b91,000, \u20b910,000, \u20b91 lakh, \u20b910 lakh and \u20b91 crore.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fifthly, <\/strong>the donors can buy electoral bonds and transfer them into the accounts of the political parties as a donation. The <strong>name of the donor is kept confidential<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sixthly, political parties will create a specific account<\/strong>. This account will be verified by the ECI. The political parties will encash the electoral bonds only in this verified account.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Seventhly, <\/strong>the bonds will remain<strong> valid for 15 days<\/strong>. Within that time, the political parties have to encash the electoral bond in the designated accounts.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lastly, <\/strong>no payment shall be made to the Political Party if the Electoral Bond is deposited after the expiry of the validity period.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Eligibility<\/strong>: Only the registered Political Parties are eligible. Further, they also have to secure at least 1% of the votes polled in the last Lok Sabha elections or the State Legislative Assembly to receive the funds.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/electoral-bonds-and-its-challenges-explained-pointwise\/#:~:text=The%20Electoral%20Bonds%20are%20the,the%20funding%20of%20political%20parties.\"><strong>Click Here to Read more about Electoral Bonds and its challenges<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/MShareArticle?OrgId=GKL8JG0RM.1&amp;imageview=0\"><strong>The Hindu<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the News? State Bank of India(SBI) has provided information on the sale of electoral bonds during the recent assembly elections. This was provided after a Right to Information(RTI) application was filed. Key Highlights from the Sale of Electoral Bonds: During the Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, West Bengal, Assam and Kerala polls,\u00a0electoral bonds worth \u20b9695&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/rti-reveals-details-of-electoral-bonds-sale-during-the-recent-elections\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">RTI reveals details of &#8220;Electoral bonds&#8221; sale during the recent elections<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1760,9],"tags":[1331],"class_list":["post-107629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-polity-and-nation","category-public","tag-po_7","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}