Digital Desk: The government approved issuing the 19th tranche of electoral bonds on Thursday, ahead of assembly elections in five states. The bonds will be available for purchase between January 1 and 10.
As part of efforts to increase openness in political fundraising, Electoral Bonds have been promoted as an alternative to cash donations to political parties. On the other hand, opposition parties have expressed concerns about the opacity with which such bonds are funded.
"State Bank of India (SBI), in the XIX Phase of sale, has been authorized to issue and encash Electoral Bonds through its 29 Authorized Branches with effect from January 1 to January 10, 2022," the finance ministry said in a statement.
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The 29 specified SBI branches are in cities like Lucknow, Shimla, Dehradun Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Patna, and New Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, and Mumbai.
Next month, Assembly elections are scheduled to be called in five states: Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Goa.
The first batch of electoral bonds was sold from March 1 to 10, 2018. The bond sale's 18th tranche ran from September 1 through September 10, 2021.
According to provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds can be purchased by a person who is a citizen of India or entities incorporated or established in India.
Electoral bonds are available to register political parties that received at least 1% of the vote in the most recent Lok Sabha or legislative assembly election.
SBI is the only authorized bank to issue such bonds.
An electoral bond will be valid for 15 days from the issue date. No payment will be made to any payee political party if the bond is deposited after the expiry of the validity period, as per the statement.
The bond deposited by any eligible political party into its account would be credited on the same day.
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