Electoral bonds adversely affecting transparency in political funding: Election Commission to Supreme Court 

New Delhi: The Election Commission in India, in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court in response to the petitions challenging the scheme of electoral bonds scheme, has told the top court that electoral bonds, contrary to the claims made by the government, maybe defeating the very purpose of clean political funding.

In an affidavit, the poll panel said: “Electoral bonds and removal of cap on corporate funding will have a serious impact on transparency in the funding of political parties.”

While detailing how donations through electoral bonds would cause serious repercussions on the transparency of political funding, the commission also criticised the amendments made to the Finance Act, Income Tax Act and the Representation of People Act as donations through electoral bonds not required to be reported after the amendments.

The EC affidavit said: “In a situation where contributions received through electoral bonds are not reported, on perusal of contribution report of political parties, it cannot be ascertained whether the political party has taken any donation in violation of section 29B of the Representation of People Act, 1951, which prohibits the political parties from taking donations from government companies and foreign sources.”

“The Election Commission of India has time and again voiced the importance of declaration of donations received by political parties and also about the manner in which those funds are expended by them for better transparency and accountability in the election process,” it submitted.

The Association for Democratic Reforms and others have filed the petitions in the Supreme court challenging the electoral bonds scheme that the government introduced in 2018 with the purpose of ensuring clean political funding.

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