ELECTORAL BONDS AND OPACITY IN POLITICAL FUNDING (Updated as on January 06, 2023)

Only those political parties which fulfill the following criteria are eligible to receive electoral bonds – (i) registered under section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and (ii) secured not less than one per cent of the votes polled in the last general election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly, as the case may be. [...] In accordance with the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018, the section 29C of The Representation of the People Act, 1951 has been amended to remove the obligation of political parties to keep a record of the identity of donors who give any sum of money through Electoral Bonds or report the same to the Election Commission of India (ECI) annually. [...] The value of the bonds sold this time was the highest ever in the run-up to Assembly elections since the beginning of the Electoral Bond Scheme in 2018. [...] A list of all political parties eligible to receive donations through electoral bonds as per the eligibility criteria mentioned in the Electoral Bond Scheme, 2018 should be compiled and regularly updated on the basis of the vote share secured by the parties in the last General Election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State contested. [...] This list must be made available in the public domain through the websites of the ECI, the SBI and hard copies of the same shall also be available at the 29 branches of SBI authorised for the sale of electoral bonds.