Electoral Bond

Electoral Bond

An electoral bond is like a promissory note that can be bought by any Indian citizen or company incorporated in India from select branches of State Bank of India. The citizen or corporate can then donate the same to any eligible political party of his choice. The bonds are similar to banknotes that are payable to the bearer on demand and are free of interest. An individual or party will be allowed to purchase these bonds digitally or through cheque.

According to the government, electoral bonds were being introduced to ensure that all the donations made to a party would be accounted for in the balance sheets without exposing the donor details to the public. The government said that electoral bonds would keep a tab on the use of black money for funding elections. In the absence of electoral bonds, donors would have no option but to donate by cash after siphoning off money from their businesses, the government said. The electoral bonds were introduced with the Finance Bill (2017). On January 29, 2018, the Narendra Modi-led NDA government notified the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018. The electoral bonds are available for purchase for 10 days at the beginning of every quarter. The first 10 days of January, April, July, and October have been specified by the government for the purchase of electoral bonds. An additional period of 30 days shall be specified by the government in the year of the Lok Sabha elections. Using electoral bonds is quite simple. The bonds will be issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 100,000, and Rs 1 crore (the range of a bond is between Rs 1,000 to Rs 1 crore). These will be available at some branches of SBI. A donor with a KYC-compliant account can purchase the bonds and can then donate them to the party or individual of their choice. Now, the receiver can encash the bonds through the party's verified account. The electoral bond will be valid only for fifteen days. The 29 specified SBI branches are in cities such as New Delhi, Gandhinagar, Chandigarh, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Mumbai, Jaipur, Lucknow, Chennai, Kolkata, and Guwahati. 

Experts are of the view that if the electoral bonds scheme had been introduced to bring about greater transparency, the government must not restrain from allowing details of such donations to be made public. Experts and several politicians say that since neither the purchaser of the bond nor the political party receiving the donation is required to disclose the donor’s identity, the shareholders of a corporation will remain unaware of the company’s contribution. Voters, too, will have no idea of how, and through whom, a political party has been funded. Opponents of the electoral bond scheme argue that since the identity of the donor has been kept anonymous, it could lead to an influx of black money. Some others allege that the scheme was designed to help big corporate houses donate money without their identity being revealed. According to civil rights societies, the concept of donor "anonymity" threatens the very spirit of democracy.

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Mansi Pandey的更多文章

  • What is Arbitration?

    What is Arbitration?

    Arbitration is an alternative to litigation. It is primarily used to resolve disputes arising from commercial…

  • Challenges for India emerging as the Centre Of Arbitration

    Challenges for India emerging as the Centre Of Arbitration

    Alternative dispute resolution as a concept is still evolving in this country. With the day-to-day development of the…

  • Insolvency And Bankruptcy: An Insight Into Ordinance, 2020

    Insolvency And Bankruptcy: An Insight Into Ordinance, 2020

    Insolvency is a situation where individuals or companies are unable to repay their outstanding debt. Bankruptcy, on the…

  • Power of Police in nvestigation

    Power of Police in nvestigation

    Chapter XII of the Code of Criminal Procedure, deals with the Information to the Police and their Powers to…

  • What are Mortgages?

    What are Mortgages?

    Mortgages are also known as "liens against property" or "claims on property." With a fixed-rate mortgage, the borrower…

  • The Next Normal: Workplaces

    The Next Normal: Workplaces

    The pandemic has upended the way we work, bringing both value and vulnerability to the physical spaces we share. While…

    1 条评论
  • Article 15 of the Indian Constitution

    Article 15 of the Indian Constitution

    India is a secular, democratic, and republic nation that has created all the necessary provisions to safeguard the…

  • Why people are afraid of lawyers in tier 3-4 location

    Why people are afraid of lawyers in tier 3-4 location

    Most people from tier 3 and 4 locations don’t tend to trust lawyers much. Well, it is a bitter truth that we lawyers…

  • The Next Normal: Indian Judiciary

    The Next Normal: Indian Judiciary

    With the outbreak of COVID-19, All spheres of life have been affected and the judicial system is no exception to this…

  • The Next Normal: Innovation in Law

    The Next Normal: Innovation in Law

    Professor Richard Susskind started his book by saying that, “Legal institutions and lawyers are at a crossroads, I…

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了