Image Source Mar 23, 2021 04:36 IST · 1 min read
The Supreme Court has agreed to urgently hear a plea by NGO who claims that - The sale of electoral bonds may become an avenue for shell corporations and entities to park illicit money and even proceeds of bribes with political parties.
It is like a promissory note that can be bought by any Indian citizen or company incorporated in India from select branches of State Bank of India to anonymously fund political parties.
What are electoral bonds ?
The Electoral Bond Scheme was notified by the government on January 2, 2018 as an alternative to cash donations and to ensure transparency in political funding. Following are the provisions of the scheme:1) Electoral bonds may be purchased by an Indian citizen or a company incorporated or established in India.
2) To be eligible to receive electoral bonds a political party should be registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 and should has secured at least one per cent votes in the last Lok Sabha elections.
3) The electoral bonds can be purchased for a period of ten days in the months of January, April, July and October.
4) Political parties has to have an account issued by the State Bank of India (SBI) and verified by the Election Commission of India (ECI). All the transactions for electoral bonds can be done only through this account.
5) The electoral bonds are available in denominations from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 crore, in multiple values of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore without any maximum limit and encachable by political parties only.
6) Under the scheme the names of the donors are kept confidential (Donor's name is not mentioned on the bond), however the donor has to provide his/her KYC detail to the banks to purchase the these bonds.
7) These electoral bonds remain valid for 15 days and can be encashed by an eligible political party only through a bank account with the authorised bank within that period only.
The opponents to the scheme allege that the scheme was designed to help big corporate houses in regulating their black money since the identity of the donor of electoral bonds has been kept anonymous.