Taxpayers paid for Electoral bonds: Centre billed Rs 13 cr by SBI for processing bonds, says RTI

Hyderabad: A whopping amount of more than Rs 13 crores has been leived on the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP government in Centre regarding the sale of electoral bonds in 29 phases over six years. This amount is the commission to the State Bank of India (SBI) for processing the electoral bonds, including printing. The six years cover more than 29 phases from 2018 to 2023.

NewsMeter has obtained a copy of a Right to Information (RTI) from Commodore Lokesh Batra, which shows that a total of Rs 11,60,65,674 (inclusive of GST) has been charged by the SBI to the government i.e. levied on the taxpayers as commission so far, consequent to the sale of electoral bonds.

Regarding the printing costs, Rs 1,90,01,380 (inclusive of GST) has been levied on the government or taxpayers' money towards the printing of 6,74,250 electoral bonds. An additional Rs 6,720 for a ‘Device to verify Mask-A-Print Security.’ The total comes up to Rs 13,50,73,000 which has been imposed on the government.

Out of the Rs 11 crores, the government has so far paid Rs 8,57,06,831 which covers commission for 25 phases. The payment for the rest is ‘under consideration for payment.’

How are electoral bonds purchased?

While purchasing an electoral bond (EB), no tax is levied on the buyer. Instead, the government pairs the money to the bank for processing the electoral bonds and cashes it through its political party.

"In the Electoral Bonds Scheme 2018, donors who buy electoral bonds are not required to pay any service charges (commission) to the SBI and even bear the cost of printing the EBs. It is the government or ultimately, the taxpayers, who bear this cost, which enables the transactions to remain ‘Anonymous Tax-Free Funding’ to political parties through the ‘opaque’ EB scheme," said Commodore Batra.

This means that Rs 13 crores, 50 lakhs, and 73 thousand have to be paid by the taxpayers through the government for enabling transactions of ‘Anonymous Tax-Free Funding’ to political parties through the opaque ‘Electoral Bonds Scheme 2018.’

In addition, there is a huge amount spent/being spent for using government machinery and manpower for managing and operating the Electoral Bonds Scheme for the tax-free benefits of political parties at the cost of taxpayers

Corporate purchases

It appears that big corporates have so far purchased EBs worth Rs 15946 crores, 30 lakhs, 96 thousand (Rs 159463096000) of which 94.623 per cent EBs purchased are of Rs 1 crore denomination each.

The EB scheme does not require ‘donors’ to pay any service charges/commissions to the SBI towards purchasing transactions. This means that political parties are getting tax-free donations.

Here are the highlights

- An amount of Rs 1,90,01,380 (inclusive of GST) has been levied on the government towards printing electoral bonds to date. An amount of Rs 6,720 has been levied for a ‘Device to verify Mask-A-Print Security.’

- The amount for the printing of electoral bonds and for the ‘Device to verify Mask-A-Print Security’ was paid from the budgetary head 2052.00.090.09.01.16 under the Grant of the Department of Economic Affairs.