E-Paper
RTI reply: Govt paid SBI ₹11.61cr as poll bond commission
The government has paid ₹11,60,65,675, inclusive of the GST, of the ₹12,04,59,043 commission incurred across 30 phases
The government of India has paid ₹11.61 crore as commission towards the sale of electoral bonds in 29 phases, the Department of Economic Affairs revealed in a response to a right to information request.
Commission for the 30th phase of bonds issue, which would bring the total to ₹12.04 crore, is under consideration for payment. In addition, an amount of ₹1.9 crore has been levied for printing of the 682,600 electoral bonds.
The government has paid ₹11,60,65,675, inclusive of the GST, of the ₹12,04,59,043 commission incurred across 30 phases.
The response dated April 16 was received by Commodore Lokesh Batra (retd).
According to the RTI response, printing the 682,600 electoral bonds cost the government ₹1,90,01,380, inclusive of GST, all of which has been paid, as per the DEA response.
However, a March 28 response sent by the India Security Press to Batra put the cost of printing the electoral bonds at ₹1,93,73,604. It is not clear why the DEA and ISP figures differ. HT has reached out to the DEA and ISP for comments but didn’t get a response.
The government has also not received the final bill for printing 8,350 bonds of ₹1 crore denomination, according to the response by DEA.
The government also paid ₹6,720 for a “Device to verify Mask-A-Print Security”.
“Mask-A-Print” is a technique used to hide certain text or image on a printed document; such content is visible only when it is seen under a special type of film.
