nFinance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said electoral bonds are there to check the use of black money for funding elections and said UPA regime also made similar move by forming electoral trusts.
“Surprisingly the attack is against the bonds and not the electoral trust because the earlier was brought by the NDA and the latter was by UPA. The underlying principle of both is the same,” Jaitley said in his blog titled ‘The Choice of Political Funding — Cheque, Electoral Bonds or Blackmoney from Contractors and middlemen’.
Highlighting the problem of black money in elections, Jaitley said as per reports Rs 1,500 crore has been seized as a result of initiatives taken by the Election Commission and revenue authorities. He added in absence of the electoral bonds, the donors will have no option but to donate only by cash after siphoning monies from their businesses.
“The recent EC and IT raids have shown that it is taxpayers/Government’s money, which, through PWD and other Departments of the Government, is being siphoned out and round-tripping into politics.
“Is that a better option or the reformed system of all white money and improved, if not a perfect transparency? NGOs and commentators must look beyond their nose,” he added.
The Government had in 2018 brought in the electoral bond scheme as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties as part of its efforts to bring transparency in political funding. Under the scheme, the name of the donor is known only to banks.
Jaitley said both the electoral trusts, proposed by the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in 2010, and electoral bonds assured total white money and improved transparency but masked the identity of the link between the donor and the party. “This obviously has been done to encourage donors to donate white money without fear of consequences,” he said.
The Minister said past few days have witnessed several cases where the Election Commission and the revenue authorities, both separately and acting jointly, were trying to curb the use of black money in elections. “These actions have been particularly significant in States like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, North-East and Madhya Pradesh. The Election Commission and the Income-tax authorities work in close tandem during elections. In many cases, monies have been coming from Government contractors and beneficiaries,” Jaitley said.
He said in one State, contractors passed on monies to engineers who were to distribute it to the candidates.
“In another State, which only four months ago elected a new Government, 50,000 Government transfers became a revenue generating exercise. Reports have also indicated that an amount of about Rs 1,500 crore has already been seized,” Jaitley added.