The Election Commission, in compliance with the directives of the Supreme Court, has released the latest electoral bond data submitted by the State Bank of India. This updated data includes unique alphanumeric codes aimed at facilitating the matching of purchasers with the political parties that encashed the bonds.
The release of this comprehensive data on March 21, marks a significant step towards enhancing transparency and accountability in political funding. With the inclusion of alphanumeric numbers, donors can now be identified and matched with the specific political parties they donated to.
Electoral bonds have been a subject of debate and scrutiny due to concerns regarding transparency in political funding. The addition of alphanumeric codes aims to address these concerns by providing a mechanism to track and trace the flow of funds from donors to political parties.
“In compliance with the Supreme Court’s directions, SBI has provided data pertaining to electoral bonds to ECI today i.e. March 21, 2024. The ECI has uploaded it on its website as received from SBI on an ‘as is where is basis’,” the poll panel said in a statement on Thursday.
The two sets of data–552 pages of details of redemption by political parties and 386 pages of details of donors–cover electoral bonds purchased and redeemed from April 2019 until January 2024.The fresh data was published by the poll panel on its website after the details were submitted by the State Bank of India earlier in the day, in compliance with a Supreme Court order.
The details of redemption by political parties include the serial number, date of encashment, name of the political party, last four digits of the account number, prefix, bond number, denomination, pay branch code and pay teller.
The State Bank of India was the only bank authorised to sell and redeem the bonds, which were first issued in March 2018 and were being sold until being declared null and void by the top court last month.
On Monday, the Supreme Court had directed SBI to disclose all electoral bond details, including the unique identification code, by March 21. It had then asked the Election Commission to upload the details upon receipt from the SBI.
The SBI chairman, in an affidavit to the Supreme Court, submitted that the “prefix and the bond number is in fact the alphanumeric number”.
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