Political Parties Encashed Electoral Bonds Worth Rs 324 Crore In 2020-21

Political parties encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 324.36 crore in 2020-21, government informed Parliament on Tuesday.

Minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary in a written response to a question in Rajya Sabha gave this information, while adding that State Bank of India (SBI) is the authorised bank for issuing and encashing electoral bonds.

The minister further said in his response that party-wise details of electoral bonds encashment is not collated centrally at SBI.

During 2020-21, 14th and 15th tranches of electoral bonds were issued and encashed.

Mr Chaudhary further said that electoral bonds worth Rs 1,212.86 crore were encashed by political parties in the 19th tranche of electoral bonds.

As per the guidelines, the bond under this scheme can be purchased by a person, who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India and a person being an individual can buy bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals.

Accordingly, no electoral bonds are being issued to foreign entities, he said.