‘Electoral Bond Will Be Brought Back If Elected Back To Power’: Nirmala Sitharaman (image - instagram/nsitharaman )

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said that the BJP government will bring back electoral bonds, the controversial political funding scheme which was scrapped by the Supreme Court in February, if elected back to power. In an interview to Hindustan Times’ R Sukumaran and Sunetra Choudhary, Sitharaman said that the scheme would be brought back but admitted that some changes were necessary in the scheme. 

The electoral bond scheme brought in 2018 was available for purchase at any State Bank of India branch. Donations made under this scheme by corporate and even foreign entities through Indian subsidiaries enjoyed 100% tax exemption while identities of the donors were kept confidential both by the bank as well as the recipient political parties.

The scheme was later struck down by a five-judge constitutional bench declaring it “unconstitutional” as it completely anonymized contributions made to political parties. And the apex court also added that the scheme violated voters right to information in a disproportionate manner.  

The former defense minister in the interview also said the state of the economy was very relevant to the 2024 elections. She took credit for keeping inflation under check, hit out at the opposition over corruption and for fanning the north-south divide, and held out a prescription to maintain economic stability. 

Nirmala in her interview also spoke about how important is for the saffron party to achieve 370 seats and how the Dravidian parties misled the people of southern India. 

Speaking on the now-scrapped scheme, Nirmala said that the current scheme brought in was transparency while what prevailed earlier was just free-for-all. 

“We still have to do a lot of consultation with stakeholders and see what is it that we have to do to make or bring in a framework which will be acceptable to all, primarily retain the level of transparency and completely remove the possibility of black money entering into this,” she said.

Acknowledging the Supreme Court’s order, Sitharaman said that some aspects of the scheme have to be improved- for example, data made public by the Election Commission of India and State Bank of India suggested shell companies and loss-making companies contributed to parties – but added that they could be brought back in some form after “a good consultation”.