AMN
The 13th tranche of electoral bonds sale will take place from 13th to 22nd of this month. Electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of efforts to bring transparency in political funding.
Finance Ministry said, State Bank of India has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through its 29 authorised branches. The 29 specified SBI branches are in cities such as New Delhi, Chandigarh, Shimla, Srinagar, Dehradun, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, Mumbai, Patna, and Lucknow. The sale of the first batch of electoral bonds took place in March 2018.
According to provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds can be purchased by a person who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India. Registered political parties that have secured not less than 1 per cent of the votes polled in the last election of the Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly will be eligible to receive electoral bonds. A person being an individual can buy electoral bonds, either singly or jointly, with other individuals.
An electoral bond will be valid for 15 days from the date of issue. No payment would be made to any payee political party if the bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period. The bond deposited by any eligible political party into its account would be credited on the same day.