New Delhi: Taxpayers are paying the bank fees, commissions, printing costs and associated charges of the electoral bonds, Huffpost India reported on Thursday.
Electoral bonds are like promissory notes. Citizens and corporate groups can buy them from the State Bank and donate them to political parties, which they will redeem for money. These bonds are anonymous.
Narendra Modi-led NDA government notified the Electoral Bond Scheme on January 29, 2018.
To bring in the scheme, the government had amended various provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, Representation of People Act, Income Tax Act, Companies Act and Foreign Contribution Regulation Act.
These amendments were passed as money bills to circumvent the introduction in the Rajya Sabha, where BJP does not have a majority.
Huffpost India reported that “neither the secretive billionaire donor, nor the recipient political party pay a paisa to maintain the secure infrastructure, banking channels, accounts and printing presses that facilitate political donations. Instead, the money is paid from the Consolidated Fund of India, a Government of India account that includes all direct and indirect tax revenues. This is in sharp contrast to banking transfers conducted by ordinary citizens, which attract banking fees and commissions.'
It further said that decision to use public funds to facilitate political payments was hard-wired into the electoral bonds since its inception.
Ruling BJP is the biggest beneficiary of the Electoral Bonds Scheme, as the party raised most money from the scheme. According to reports, BJP raised Rs 1,450 crore through the bonds ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
This constitutes 60% of the total Rs 2,410 crore funds raised by the party before the poll. Opposition Congress raised Rs 383 crore (total fund Rs 918 crore) through the bonds.
SBI lied: report
In a previous report, Huffpost India reported that State Bank of India (SBI) provided false information in response to Right to Information queries on the electoral bonds scheme.
The report said SBI has refused to reply to RTI applications, asking exactly how much money it has billed the government for overseeing the sale and encashment of 12 rounds of electoral bonds since the scheme was first unveiled in February 2017 and implemented in March 2019. The 13th tranche took place earlier this month, days ahead of the Delhi assembly election.
