Electoral bonds worth Rs 232.10 crore were sold in the December 2022 window of sales, with nearly half of them being sold at the State Bank of India’s Mumbai branch and 83% of them being redeemed in the New Delhi branch, according to a Right to Information reply by SBI on Friday said.
In response to an RTI application by The Indian Express, SBI provided data of the 24th tranche of sales that was from December 5 to December 12, 2022. Of the total sales of 260 electoral bonds, Rs 114 crore of electoral bonds were sold in Mumbai alone. Hyderabad and Chennai branches saw sales of Rs 56 crore and Rs 30 crore respectively. The New Delhi and Kolkata branches had sales of Rs 16.10 crore and Rs 16 crore respectively.
The National Capital continued to be the top choice for political parties when it came to redemption of the electoral bonds, with Rs 194.10 crore of the bonds being cashed at the New Delhi branch of SBI. The remaining electoral bonds were redeemed in Hyderabad (Rs 21 crore) and Kolkata (Rs 17 crore).
Since the start of the electoral bond scheme in 2018 till the 24th tranche, SBI has sold a total of 20,734 electoral bonds worth Rs 11,699.83 crore, the RTI reply said. Mumbai has seen
— source indianexpress.com | Damini Nath | 06-01-2023