SBI starts electoral bond sale today: What are electoral bonds? Who can buy them and how political parties use these bonds?

SBI Electoral Bonds: From Tuesday (January 2, 2023), electoral parties will be able to buy electoral bonds from SBI branches located in all state capitals of the country. The electoral bonds will be valid for 15 days from the date of issue. If the electoral bond is deposited after the expiry of the validity period, no payment will be made to any paying political party.

The sale of electoral bonds has started.

Leading public sector bank State Bank of India (SBI) has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through its 29 authorised branches in state capitals from January 2 to January 11.

An official statement regarding this has been issued by the Finance Ministry. From Tuesday (January 2, 2024), electoral parties will be able to buy electoral bonds from SBI branches located in all the state capitals of the country.

What is electoral bond?

The Government of India had notified the electoral bond scheme in January 2018, which was then revised in November 2022.

Electoral bonds were offered along with the financial bill in 2017.

On January 29, 2018, the NDA government led by Narendra Modi had notified the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018.

The government had brought this new scheme to make the process of raising funds for political parties' elections more transparent and free from corruption.

Electoral bond is a kind of promissory note which can be bought from any State Bank of India branch.

This is a form of donation which any person or company can buy and donate to the political party of their choice.

Any person or party can buy these bonds in digital form or in the form of cheque.

These bonds are like bank notes, which can be redeemed later.

What are the conditions?

As per the provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds can be purchased by any person who is a citizen of India.

A person being an individual can purchase electoral bonds either singly or jointly with other persons.

The electoral bonds will be valid for 15 days from the date of issue and if the electoral bond is deposited after the expiry of the validity period, no payment will be made to any paying political party.

The electoral bond money deposited by the eligible political party will be credited to their account on the same day.

Only political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and which have secured at least one per cent of the votes in the last general election or the assembly election, will be eligible to receive electoral bonds.

The official statement said that the electoral bonds will be encashed by an eligible political party only through the bank account of an authorised bank.