AMN
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said the electoral bonds scheme will substantially improve the transparency in political funding as compared to present system of no-transparency.
He said, it will cleanse the political funding by permitting only clean money in donations.
In a Facebook post, the Minister highlighted the benefits of the scheme and lapses in the existing system saying the donations made on-line or through cheques remain an ideal method of donating to political parties.
He said, but these have not become very popular in India since they involve disclosure of donor’s identity.
Mr Jaitley wrote electoral bond scheme envisages total clean money and substantial transparency coming into the system of political funding.
Giving details of the scheme, the Minister added that a donor can purchase electoral bonds from a specified bank only by a banking instrument and he has to disclose in his accounts the amount of political bonds that he has purchased.
Every political party in its returns will have to disclose the amount of donations it has received through electoral bonds to the Election Commission.
The entire transactions would be through banking instruments. Mr. Jaitley said, as against a total non-transparency in the present system of cash donations where the donor, the quantum of donations and the nature of expenditure are all undisclosed, some element of transparency will be introduced in as much as all donors declare in their accounts the amount of bonds that they have purchased and all parties declare the quantum of bonds that they have received.
Mr. Jaitely also said the government is willing to consider all suggestions to further strengthen the cleansing of political funding in India.
He, however said, it has to be borne in mind that impractical suggestions will not improve the cash denominated system and they will only consolidate it.