Centre notifies electoral bonds Oppn reaches out to BJP allies to stall triple talaq bill in Rajya Sabha
POLITICAL FUNDING Move aimed at bringing greater transparency in donations to parties
NEW DELHI: The government on Tuesday notified electoral bonds as a new instrument for donations to political parties in a bid to clean up election funding.
Announcing the contours of the scheme, finance minister Arun Jaitley told Parliament the bonds will bring substantial transparency in political donations against the present system of anonymous contributions.
“The political funding mechanism developed over the last 70 years has faced wide criticism as people don’t get clear details about how much money comes, from where it comes and where it is spent,” Jaitley said.
Though called ‘bonds’, it is an interest-free instrument in the nature of a promissory note, which can be purchased for any value in the multiples of ~1,000, ~10,000, ~1 lakh, ~10 lakh and ~1 crore from specified branches of the State Bank of India (SBI).
“A citizen of India or a body incorporated in India will be eligible to purchase the bond,” the ministry said in a statement.
The bonds can be bought after fulfilling SBI’S KYC norms while the payment can only be made from a bank account. The bonds will not carry the name of the donor, the statement added.
Political analysts said this is where electoral bonds will fail in their objective of bringing transparency in political funding.
“The fact that the donor remains anonymous is the most damaging aspect. Anonymity and transparency do not go together. If black money has to be removed, then all funds to political parties should be routed through digital payments,” said Jagdeep Chhokar, founding member of Association for Democratic Reforms.
Electoral bonds would have a life of 15 days during which it can be used for making donation only to the political parties registered under Section 29A of The Representation of the People Act, 1951, and can be redeemed only through registered bank accounts of the political parties.
Jaitley said the 15-day validity is to ensure that the bonds do not turn into a “parallel economy”.
Electoral bonds were announced in the Budget 2017-18 to bring transparency in the opaque system of political party funding, often plagued by allegations of corruption. To this end, the government had earlier capped anonymous cash donations to parties at ~2,000.
The bonds will be available for purchase for 10 days in January, April, July and October, and an additional period of 30 days that will be notified by the government during general elections.
These bonds will be part of the returns filed by political parties with the Election Commission. NEWDELHI: BJP president Amit Shah, who debuted in Rajya Sabha last month, will deliver his maiden speech in the House on Wednesday.
Sources added that Shah, who sits on the prestigious front row of Rajya Sabha, will possibly speak on the success of Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in his first speech to take on the Opposition, which had been critical about the way the new tax regime was rolled out. NEW DELHI: The Opposition on Tuesday reached out to the ruling BJP’S allies to back its demand for sending to a House panel the bill that criminalises instant triple talaq, a day before the legislation is expected to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha.
Senior opposition leaders also said plans were afoot to disrupt the proceedings to prevent the government from introducing the bill in the Upper House, where the Bjp-led National Democratic Alliance is in a minority. “We can adopt any democratic tactics to stop the bill,” Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’brien said.
During the day, he and Conaggressive lending, or did not do gress’ Ghulam Nabi Azad got in a proper risk assessment along touch with BJP allies like Telugu with cases of wilful default. Desam Party (TDP), Shiromani
Responding to why the governAkali Dal (SAD), People’s Demoment does not waive loans for cratic Party (PDP) and some farmers as it has done for corposmaller parties, sources said. rate houses, Jaitley said the govThe Lok Sabha, where the ernment has not waived any such NDA has a brute majority, passed loans. “Only when a loan remains the Muslim Women (Protection non-performing after four years, of Rights on Marriage) Bill that and the bank feels that the chanproposes up to three years in jail ces of its recovery are slim, it and a penalty for violators. changes the category of the loan. “When it comes to the Rajya But the debtor’s responsibility is Sabha, we will demand that it (the to pay back remains. The bank bill) should be sent to the select does this provisioning to get relief committee,” D Raja of the Comin income tax,” he said. munist Party of India (Marxist)
He said that Bitcoin and other said, accusing the government of forms of cryptocurrencies are not “bypassing the committees”. legal tender. The government The BJP, too, has its plan ready has, as recently as December 29, to attack the Opposition, which cautioned investors to be wary of says the proposed law aims to virtual currencies, he said. criminalise a civil contract.
In a meeting with Rajya Sabha chairperson Venkaiah Naidu, the Congress, AIADMK, DMK, CPI, CPI(M) and BJD said the bill should be referred to a select committee for detailed discussion.
The opposition reiterated the demand at a business advisory committee meeting in the evening. No assurance was forthcoming from the government, opposition leaders said. The matter would be taken up again when the leaders meet before the proceedings begin Wednesday.
They were not opposed to a legislation empowering the women but wanted the bill to be discussed in detail, Congress leaders said.
The Opposition must reconsider moving amendments or referring the bill to the select committee, the government said.
The government would like the Congress to stick to the stand it took in the Lok Sabha by not pressing for amendments, parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar said.
The Supreme Court had already struck down the practice of triple talaq in August 2017.