No demand for Electoral Bonds of smaller denomination -Rakesh Dubbudu

-Factly.in

There was an intense debate around the introduction of electoral bonds by the government. Data obtained from SBI reveals that there is hardly any demand for electoral bonds of smaller denomination while 99.9% of bonds sold in terms of amount are of Rs 10 lakh & Rs 1 crore denomination.

The Electoral Bonds were first announced in the 2017-18 budget and the scheme was subsequently notified in January 2018. Factly had earlier written about the bonds, their impact on transparency etc.

Data obtained from the State Bank of India (SBI), the authorized bank to issue electoral bonds, suggests that electoral bonds of lower denominations like Rs 1000, Rs 10,000 and Rs 1,00,000 are not in much demand. Close to 97% of all the bonds purchased so far are in denomination of Rs 10,00,000 and Rs 1 crore.

Not a single bond purchased in 6 cities/branches

 

The scheme was open for 9 days each in March and April. In March, it was open only in four (4) branches across the country (Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai & New Delhi). In April, the scheme was extended to seven (7) other branches taking the total number of branches to eleven (11). The seven other branches were Bangalore, Gandhinagar, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Jaipur, Lucknow & Jaipur. During the first phase in March, bonds were bought in each of the 4 branches. On the other hand, in April, the bonds were bought only in 5 branches out of the 11 (Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi & Bangalore). Not a single bond was bought in other six branches during April.

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