In 5 yrs, most number of electoral bonds sold in Mumbai, data shows.

December 2, 2022

In terms of sheer numbers and value, most electoral bonds sold since the introduction of the scheme five years ago have been in Mumbai, followed by Kolkata and Hyderabad, with the highest amount being enchased in Delhi, an analysis of the data acquired using the right to information act has revealed. A total of over ₹10,700 crore worth of electoral bonds have been sold so far to political parties.
Mumbai accounted for 25.4% of the total electoral bonds sold by value at over ₹2742 crore. In the city, bonds worth ₹194.1 crore were encashed, which makes the city the sixth-highest in this respect.
Kolkata accounted for the second-highest numbers of bonds sold, with a total value of ₹2,387 crore. In terms bonds encashed, the city stood third with ₹1,022 crore worth bonds encashed.
Hyderabad, with bonds sold worth ₹1,885 crore, accounted for 17.47%, or the third-highest sales by value. The city stood second in terms of bonds encashed, with a total value of a little over ₹1,384 crore.
Delhi had the fourth-highest amount of electoral bond sales by value, at ₹1,519 crore were. But the Capital was where close to two-thirds, by value, of bonds were encashed: this came to be ₹6,748 crore, or nearly 63% of all bonds encashed.
This happens as electoral bonds are sold in a different part of the country and enchased in different part of the country,” Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd), who filed the RTI application said. “Delhi is the headquarter, so mostly the bonds sold elsewhere are enchased here.”
A similar trend is seen in terms of the number (not value) of electoral bonds that have been sold in the last five years. A total of 19,520 bonds have sold so far. In Kolkata, this number was 5,788, which includes bonds worth lower than ₹1 crore value. In Mumbai, 3,870 bonds were sold, followed by Hyderabad with 2,800.
The number of bonds of ₹1 crore denomination, the highest value for a single bond, followed the same trend as the total sales by value: Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad were the top three, with 2,643, 2,152 and 1,815 of these sold respectively.
In Gangtok, Ranchi and Srinagar, not a single electoral has been sold, even though they have authorized sale branches, the analysis adds.
The ₹1 crore denomination accounted for 93.6% of the total bonds sold, followed by the ₹10 lakh bond (6% by value).
The electoral bond scheme, first floated in 2017 and implemented in 2018, has since met with criticism for lacking transparency. Those opposed to it have also asserted that a large chunk of the donations has gone to the BJP, the ruling party. In 2019-20, the BJP received over 75% of the electoral bonds, according to the Election Commission data. The critics have also argued that since the bonds are sold through a government-owned bank there is a possibility that the party in power can find out who is funding their political rivals.
Sold four times a year (in January, April, July and October) for 10 days as notified by the government; electoral bonds allow political parties to accept money from donors whose identities are kept anonymous. They are sold in multiples of ₹1,000, ₹10,000, ₹1 lakh, ₹10 lakh, and ₹1 crore.
SBI is the sole authorised bank to sell and redeem the bonds. Customers of other banks can also purchase the bonds via different payment channels provided to them. However, a political party can only redeem the bond from one of the 29 authorized branches of the bank.
A political party must also have at least 1% vote share in most recent general elections or assembly elections to receive donations via electoral bonds.
A petition seeking a stay on the sale of the bonds is pending before the Supreme Court. The court is scheduled to hear the matter on December 6.
Batra added much “ink has been spilled on opaque political funding through ‘Electoral Bonds’ that is affecting the conduct of ‘Free and Fair’ electoral process, thus weakening our democracy”. “The irony’ of ‘EB scheme’ is that while donors who buy ‘Electoral Bonds’ are not required to pay any service charges (commission) to SBI and even printing cost of EBs, it is the Government or ultimately, the Tax-Payers that bear this Cost – for enabling Transactions of ‘Anonymous Tax-Free Funding’ to Political Parties thru Opaque ‘Electoral Bonds Scheme 2018’,” he said.