Sale of 13th tranche of electoral bonds from Jan 13: FinMin

The finance ministry on Thursday said the 13th tranche of electoral bonds sale will take place from January 13 to January 22. 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.

"State Bank of India (SBI), in the XIII phase of the sale, has been authorized to issue and encash electoral bonds through its 29 authorized branches from January 13, 2020, to January 22, 2020," the ministry said in a statement. 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 from March 1-10, 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 percent of the votes polled in the last election of the Lok Sabha or Legislative Assembly will be eligible to receive electoral bonds. SBI is the only authorized bank to issue such 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 the expiry of the validity period. The bond deposited by any eligible political party into its account would be credited on the same day.