BJP received ₹2555 crore from electoral bonds in 2019-20: Report

Ground Report | New Delhi: BJP received ₹2555 crore 2019-2020 were sold in fiscal Electoral bonds 76% of the (Electoral Bonds) got the BJP. Overall, electoral bonds worth Rs 3,355 crore were sold in 2019-20, out of which BJP's income stood at Rs 2,555 crore, according to Election Commission of India (ECI) data. The amount received by the BJP from electoral bonds in 2019-20 is 75% more than the Rs 1450 crore it received in 2018-19.

According to the ECI data, there has been a decline of 17% in the collections of Congress as compared to the BJP. In 2018-19, Congress had received an amount of Rs 383 crore from electoral bonds. At the same time, in 2019-20 this amount was only Rs 318 crore. This is 9% of the total electoral bonds.

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BJP received ₹2555 crore

Talking about other opposition parties, Trinamool Congress collected Rs 100.46 crore, DMK Rs 45 crore, Shiv Sena Rs 41 crore, NCP Rs 29.25 crore, AAP Rs 18 crore, and RJD Rs 2.5 crore. In the 2019-20 fiscal year, the BJP's collections were more than double that of its five major rivals. BJP alone has secured 68% of the electoral bonds sold till March 2020.

In the financial year ending March 2019, the BJP's income was more than double that of its five major rivals. BJP alone has sold 68 percent of the electoral bonds till March 2020. However, long before Bond came along, the party consistently had the highest income among all political parties.

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Electoral bonds, which were introduced by the government in the face of major political opposition in 2017–2018, allow individuals as well as corporations – including those partially owned by foreign entities – to send political parties anonymously. allows funding.

This is about 95% of all electoral bonds purchased in 2017-18, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) said in a report released on Monday. "For the financial year 2018-19, BJP had received electoral bonds worth Rs 1,450.89 crore and Congress (Indian National Congress) had received electoral bonds worth Rs 383.26 crore," the report said.

The ADR said that between 2017-18 and 2018-19, political parties received Rs 2,760.20 crore from electoral bonds. "Of this, 60.17% or ₹ 1,660.89 crore went to a single party, which is the ruling political party…", the report said. It said that over 52% of the total income of national parties and 53.83 percent of the total income of regional parties as analyzed by the ADR for 2018-19, came from donations received through electoral bonds.

What are electoral bonds?

Announced in the 2017 Union Budget, electoral bonds are interest-free bearer instruments used to anonymously donate money to political parties. A bearer does not hold any information about the buyer or recipient of the instrument and the holder of the instrument (that is, a political party) is deemed to be its owner.

The bonds are sold in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore, and the State Bank of India (SBI) is the only bank authorized to sell them. Donors can buy the bonds and later donate to the party of their choice, which the party can cash out through its verified account within 15 days.

There is no limit to the number of bonds an individual or company can purchase. SBI deposited those bonds which have not been deposited by any political party in the Prime Minister's Relief Fund within 15 days. A total of 12,924 electoral bonds worth Rs 6534.78 crore have been sold in fifteen phases between March 2018 and January 2021.

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