India's largest bank--State Bank of India (SBI)--sold electoral bonds worth Rs 695.34 crore in just ten days from April 1 to April 10, when the Assembly elections in the states of Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala and Assam were underway. The largest public sector bank of the country revealed the details of electoral bond sale replying to a Right to Information application filed by Bihar based activist Kanhaiya Kumar, reported The Hindu.

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According to the reply, all but Rs 2000 worth electoral bonds sold in the 16th phase of the scheme were encashed.

Before the Assembly elections in five states, electoral bonds worth Rs 42.10 crore were sold in January this year in the previous tranche.

The highest amount of electoral bonds worth Rs 176.1 crore were sold at the Kolkata branch of the bank. Electoral bonds of worth Rs 167.5 crore were sold at New Delhi branch while Chennai branch sold bonds worth Rs 141.5 crore, the report mentioned quoting the RTI reply.

The Guwahati branch of the bank sold electoral bonds worth 4.15 crore when the electoral process in Assam was underway.

The Hyderabad and Mumbai branches of the SBI sold Rs 91.5 crore worth of electoral bonds each.

According to the report, the RTI reply revealed 972 of the total 974 electoral bonds sold were encashed with almost half of the amount, Rs 351 crore, being encashed at the New Delhi branch.

The SBI, however, declined to name the political parties that encashed the electoral bonds, saying it was “third party personal information” that was exempted under the RTI Act.

The bank also declined to share the details of commission it earned since the scheme started in 2018, saying the information was of “commercial confidence in nature”.

What are electoral bonds?

An electoral bond is like a promissory note that Indian citizens or companies incorporated in India can purchase from select SBI branches and donate them to political parties of their choice anonymously. They, however, can purchase these bonds only digitally or through cheques.

As per the electoral bond scheme, started by the NDA government in 2018, the bonds are sold by the SBI in denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore.

The bonds are like banknotes that are payable to the bearer on demand and are interest-free.

Introduced with the Finance Bill, 2017, the Electoral Bond Scheme was notified on January 29, 2018.