The sale of the first tranche of electoral bonds will start from March 1 for a period of 10 days.

“This is the first issue of the scheme, which was originally scheduled for January 2018 for the first quarter of the year,” the Finance Ministry said on Thursday.

State-run State Bank of India has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds initially at four of its authorised branches in Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

The bonds will be valid for a period of 15 days from the date of issue and no payment shall be made to any political party if it is deposited after expiry of the validity period, said the Ministry.

“The bond deposited by any eligible political party to its account shall be credited on the same day,” it added. While any citizen of India or a company incorporated in the country can either alone or jointly with other people buy the bonds, only registered political parties will be eligible to receive them.

For the purpose of eligibility, a political party should be registered under Section 29A of Representation of People Act, 1951 and should have secured not less than one per cent of the votes polled in the last General Election to the House of People or Legislative Assembly of the State.

“The bond shall be encashed by an eligible political party only through a bank account with the authorised bank,” said the Ministry.

The Electoral Bond scheme was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget 2017-18 to help increase transparency in political funding. The scheme was notified by the government on January 2 this year.

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