The Centre has spent around Rs 9.5 crore of taxpayer money on commission and printing costs of opaque electoral bonds (EBs) issued to fund political parties.
A right-to-information (RTI) application filed by transparency activist Commodore (Retd.) filed by Lokesh K Batra has revealed that almost Rs 10,791.50 crore has been collected by political parties through EBs from anonymous donors in 22 phases since the Electoral Bond Scheme was launched in 2018.
According to the reply of the department of economic affairs, Ministry of Finance, 93.67% of the EBs are of Rs 1 crore denomination each—leaving no doubt that big corporate entities are purchasing them to donate to political parties.
The Rs 9.5 crore comprises a commission of Rs 7.63 crore and Rs 1.90 crore (both inclusive of Goods and Services Tax) as charges for the printing of EBs, the RTI reply says.
Ironically, donors who buy EBs are not required to pay any service charge (commission) to the State Bank of India (SBI)—the only bank authorised to issue EBs—and even the
— source newsclick.in | 28 Nov 2022