Bhushan: All that the political parties will have to disclose is that out of the total donations they received, they received 500 crores by Electoral Bonds. That's all. That match of who purchased this bond and which party enchashed- it can only be done by State Bank.
Bhushan: The political party also may not come to know who has donated. It is open for the party to say - we opened our office in morning and saw these 100 crores of bonds lying under our door. We deposited them, we don't know who gave them. These are bearer bonds.
Bhushan: Under the scheme, State Bank has to issue electoral bond. So State Bank has a record of who purchased which bonds. Bond are bearer bonds, they're transferable. So if I have purchased it, state bank will know I have purchased. But I can hand over to someone else.
Bhushan: It has on one hand introduced an opaque instrument - by which nobody can come to know other than the government. It is only the government which will know who contributed to whom.
Bhushan: Everywhere electoral bonds have not only been introduced, they have been exempted from disclosure under the Companies Act, Income Tax act, Representation of People Act etc
Bhushan: Then Income Taxt Act. There was a requirement in the Income Tax act that every political party should maintain accounts of where they received donations from, who gave them...now, it says that requirement of keeping a record is omitted for electoral bonds.
Bhushan: They don't have to disclose which is the political party to whom they have given these electoral bonds. Earlier there was a requirement to disclose that
Bhushan: Then a slew of changes were made. Earlier the requirement was you had to disclose which party you donated to. Now they say every company should disclose total amount donated...after the amendment they have to only disclose the total amount
Bhushan: So there was a limit, a cap on the amount of corporate donations that any company could give to a political party. That proviso has been omitted.
Bhushan: S 182 originally prescribed that the amount contributed in a financial year shall not exceed 7.5% of its average net profits during three immediately preceding financial years.