Govt approves 15th tranche of electoral bonds; sale closes on January 10

The government on Tuesday approved the 15th tranche of electoral bonds which will be open for sale between January 1 and January 10.

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.

"The State Bank of India (SBI), in the XV Phase of sale, has been authorised to issue and encash Electoral Bonds through its 29 Authorised Branches (as per list enclosed)w.e.f. 01.01.2021 to 10.01.2021," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The 29 specified SBI branches are in cities such as Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Shimla, Srinagar, Dehradun, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, Mumbai, 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 entities incorporated or established in India. Registered political parties that have secured not less than 1 per cent of the votes polled in the last election of the Lok Sabha or legislative assembly are eligible to receive electoral bonds.

SBI is the only authorised bank to issue such bonds.

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 expiry of the validity period, it said, adding, the bond deposited by any eligible political party into its account would be credited on the same day.

The last issuance was done in October ahead of Bihar assembly election.