E-Paper
Electoral bond details on ECI website by March 15. Will we know source of donations?
The State Bank of India has issued electoral bonds worth ₹16,518 crore in 30 tranches since the inception of the scheme in 2018
The Election Commission is set to upload details of electoral bonds shared by the State Bank of India on its official website by 5 pm on March 15.
“In compliance of the Hon'ble Supreme Court's directions to the SBI, contained in its order dated Feb 15 & March 11, 2024 (in the matter of WPC NO.880 of 2017), data on electoral bonds has been supplied by the State Bank of India to the Election Commission of India, today, March 12, 2024,” the poll panel had said.
The State Bank of India has issued electoral bonds worth ₹16,518 crore in 30 tranches since the inception of the scheme in 2018.
The publication of electoral bonds data by the poll panel assumes significance as it will be released ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Will we know source of donations through electoral bonds?
The Supreme Court had asked India's biggest lender to submit details on electoral bonds. However, it did not explicitly instruct SBI to provide information to ECI following the correlation of donor data with political party affiliations. While most of the details about political parties’ electoral bonds redemptions is already available to the public, the related donor data is not.
When the electoral bonds data will be released, we will get to know who received the donations on which date and the amount. The bonds data will reveal the list of recipients.
Suppose a company named ‘A’ bought electoral bonds worth ₹1,000 and a political party ‘B’ received bonds worth the same amount, we cannot say that ‘A’ donated ₹1,000 to ‘B’.
According to a TOI report, the details furnished by the SBI may not include the ‘unique number’ assigned to each bond. If anyone knows the number of both the donor and recipient, only then the details can be matched.
