Data on Sale of Electoral Bonds

November 30, 2022

Mumbai sold the highest number an electoral bonds since the scheme was launched five years ago.

What are the key findings of the data on electoral bond sales?

In terms of numbers and value, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Hyderabad sold the most electoral bonds since the scheme was introduced in 2018.
A total of some Rs.10,700 crore worth of electoral bonds were sold to the political parties since the scheme’s launch.
Mumbai accounted for 25.4 per cent of the total electoral bonds sold by value (Rs.2742 crore). In terms of bonds encashed, the city is the sixth highest at Rs.194.1 crore.
Kolkata sold the second-highest number of electoral bonds, with a total value of Rs.2,387 crore. It stood third in terms of bonds encashed, with a total of Rs.1,022 crore.
Bonds worth Rs. 1,885 crore were sold in Hyderabad. The city accounted for 17.47 per cent or the 3^rd highest sales by value. It stood second in terms of bond encashed, with a total value of some Rs.1,384 crore.
Delhi had the fourth highest sales of electoral bonds worth Rs.1,519 crore. Around two-third (63 per cent) of bonds were encashed by value in Delhi. This is because the bonds were sold in one part of the country and encashed in another.
A total of 19,520 bonds were sold until date. In Kolkata, 5,788 were sold, including bonds worth less than Rs.1 crore in value. The second-highest number of sales (3,870 bonds) was made in Mumbai, followed Hyderabad (2,800 bonds).
Mumbai, Kolkata and Hyderabad sold the highest number of bonds of Rs.1 crore denomination. This denomination accounted for 93.6 per cent of the total bonds sold, followed by the Rs.10 lakh bond (6 per cent by value).
Not even a single electoral bond was sold in Gangtok, Ranchi and Srinagar. This comes even as these cities have authorized sale branches.

About the Electoral Bond Scheme

Electoral bond scheme was launched by the Central Government to create transparency in the donations to political parties. Electoral bonds under this scheme are sold four times a year for 10 days. They allow political parties to accept money from anonymous donors. SBI is the only authorized bank to sell and redeem these bonds. Customers of other banks can purchase the electoral bonds through alternative payment channels.

This scheme has been criticised for the lack of transparency. According to the Election Commission Data, over 75 per cent of the bonds were received by BJP in 2019-20. Critics of this scheme argued that since these bonds are sold by state-owned bank, the political party that is in power can find out who is funding the opposition parties.

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