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BJP Govt Printed Rs 8,350 Crore Electoral Bonds In 2024

As per an RTI reply, the BJP government printed electoral bonds worth Rs 8350 crore in 2024 alone. This happened after the Supreme Court already reserved its verdict on the constitutionality of the scheme in November 2023.

The State Bank of India (SBI) shared this information in response to an RTI query from transparency activist Commodore Lokesh Batra

The total value of these bonds printed in 2024, Rs 8,350 crores, is more than what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has collected through the scheme since it started.

According to the Election Commission’s data, the BJP has received Rs 8,251.8 crores in electoral bonds since 2018. The total value of bonds sold during this time is Rs 16,518 crore. This means the BJP has redeemed approximately half of all the bonds sold.

An earlier RTI filed by Batra found that the taxpayer is covering the expenses of printing and managing electoral bonds and not the donors or political parties,

As per the RTI response, SBI, the bank authorized to issue electoral bonds, charged the government Rs 13.50 crore for its “commission, printing, and other expenses for managing and operating the Electoral Bonds Scheme” between 2018 and 2023.

The cost of printing and managing the additional 8,350 bonds this year is unknown.

On February 15, the Supreme Court invalidated the electoral bonds scheme, deeming it unconstitutional and a violation of voters’ right to information. The court directed SBI to provide details of the bonds to the EC.

The BJP is the largest recipient of funds via electoral bonds, receiving Rs 8,700 crore, surpassing the total received by all other parties combined.

However, the party has not disclosed the companies that purchased and donated these bonds to them. Similarly, the Congress and Trinamool Congress, the second and third highest beneficiaries, have also not shared this information publicly.

As per SBI data made public by the EC, between April 2019 to Jan 2024 political parties got more than 12,000 crore rupees. BJP alone got nearly 50% of this amount or more than 6000 crore rupees.

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