Three days before the Supreme Court declared electoral bonds unconstitutional, the Finance Ministry gave the go-ahead for printing of 10,000 electoral bonds worth Rs 1 crore each by the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL), according to a report by The Indian Express .
The Finance Ministry’s directive to stop printing was issued on February 28, a fortnight after the Supreme Court’s ruling, forcing the State Bank of India (SBI) to halt the process immediately.
The revelation of this series of events comes from file notes and email exchanges between the finance ministry and SBI, which the newspaper has accessed through the Right to Information (RTI) Act. This data shows that SPMCIL had already produced and sent 8,350 bonds to SBI.
The instruction to suspend printing was conveyed in a trial email titled ‘Hold on Printing of Electoral Bonds – Electoral Bond Scheme 2018’ dated February 28, from SBI to SPMCIL.
The Deputy Managing Director of SBI’s Transaction Banking Department, in an email dated February 23, 2024, confirmed receipt of four boxes of security forms of electoral bonds totaling 8,350 bonds. It said: “As per the judgment of the Honorable Supreme Court, we request you to stop printing of the remaining 1,650 electoral bonds approved through the Budget Division Letter dated January 12, 2024.”
A note dated February 27 stated that the order was for the printing of 400 booklets and 10,000 electoral bonds, with the approval of the ‘Government of India’ granted on February 12.
On the same day, the Budget Department of the Finance Ministry again sent an email to SBI and other relevant entities within the ministry, asking them to inform SPMCIL to stop printing of the remaining 1,650 electoral bonds.
The electoral bond scheme was introduced to enable individual and domestic companies to anonymously donate bonds to political parties in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore. The bonds had to be redeemed by a political party within 15 days.
A total of 22,217 electoral bonds have been redeemed since the start of the scheme. Among political parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has raised Rs 8,451 crore; the Congress Rs 1,950 crore; Trinamool Congress Rs 1,707.81 crore, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BRS) Rs 1,407.30 crore.
First print: March 30, 2024 | 1:20 PM IST