Ahead of Assembly Polls, Centre Approves 19th Tranche of Electoral Bonds; Sale Opens on Jan 1

Forward of meeting elections in 5 states, the federal government on Thursday authorized issuance of the nineteenth tranche of electoral bonds which shall be open on the market from January 1 to 10. Electoral bonds have been pitched as a substitute for money donations made to political events as a part of efforts to deliver transparency in political funding. Nevertheless, Opposition events have been elevating considerations about alleged opaqueness in funding by means of such bonds.

“State Financial institution of India (SBI), within the XIX Part of sale, has been authorised to difficulty and encash Electoral Bonds by means of its 29 Licensed Branches with impact from January 1 to January 10, 2022,” the finance ministry stated in a press release. The 29 specified SBI branches are in cities akin to Lucknow, Shimla, Dehradun Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, and Mumbai.

Meeting elections for five states- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Goa- are anticipated to be introduced subsequent month. The sale of the primary batch of electoral bonds happened from March 1-10, 2018. The 18th tranche of bond sale happened from September 1 to September 10, 2021. Based on provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds might be bought by an individual who’s a citizen of India or entities integrated or established in India. Registered political events which have secured not lower than 1 per cent of the votes polled within the final election of Lok Sabha or legislative meeting are eligible to obtain electoral bonds.