Rs 1,200-crore electoral bonds encashed in Jan

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, February 8

Ahead of the polls in five states, political parties encashed electoral bonds worth Rs 1,212.86 crore, the government informed Parliament today.

Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha said the parties encashed these bonds which were part of the 19th tranche of the bonds opened for sale between January 1 and 10.

This is in sharp contrast to parties encashing bonds worth only Rs 324.36 crore during the entire financial year 2020-21. In all, a total of 2,068 electoral bonds were issued in the 19th tranche by the SBI through 29 authorised branches across India. These included 1,156 bonds worth Rs 1 crore each and the rest of smaller amounts.

The minister also informed the House that the party-wise details of encashment of electoral bonds were not collated centrally by the State Bank of India, which was authorised to issue bonds nor were any electoral bonds being issued to foreign entities. A maximum amount of Rs 784.85 crore was encashed by parties from the New Delhi main branch of the SBI, followed by Rs 224.20 crore from its Kolkata main branch.

From Chennai main branch of SBI, parties encashed bonds worth Rs 100 crore, followed by Rs 50 crore from Bhubaneshwar, Rs 39.2 crore from Mumbai and Rs 10 crore from the Patna main branch.

Bonds amounting from Rs 3.21 crore were encashed from the Lucknow branch, Rs 90 lakh from Panaji and Rs 50 lakh from the Chandigarh main branch of the SBI.

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