Now, SBI Deletes Documents Related To Electoral Bonds From Website

New Delhi: The State Bank of India (SBI) has deleted electoral bond-related documents from its website. This development surfaces amidst the bank seeking time till June 30 to submit details of electoral bonds encashed by political parties.

The links or webpages which don't exist in the SBI's website are — Operating guidelines for donors and Frequently Asked Questions/FAQs.

The document titled "Operating guidelines for donors" was a gazette notification which was released on January 2, 2018. It listed basic information like who could purchase an electoral bond, electoral bonds were available in what denominations, what were the documents required to purchase electoral bonds, how to purchase (through NEFT, online transaction, etc.) and which are the SBI branches authorised for the purchase of the bonds.

In the FAQs, SBI had provided basic information related to electoral bonds like KYC requirements and citizenship proof required for the purchase of bonds, etc. The deleted documents were shared by senior journalist Nitin Sethi on social media platform X (previously called Twitter) and another social media user @indian_nagrik.

All the PDFs related to #ElectoralBonds are removed from the SBI website.@TheOfficialSBI should come up with an explanation. pic.twitter.com/0cAEwsG2Hy

— Kapil (@kapsology) March 7, 2024

Also read: When the Govt Wanted Electoral Bonds Data, SBI Didn't Need Extra Time to Provide it

Notably, the Supreme Court had ordered the largest government-owned bank to release details of all the electoral bonds purchased by March 6. In total, including the latest tranche, Rs 16,518.11 crore electoral bonds have been sold by the SBI.

According to a report published in The Reporter's Collective, the SBI has provided crucial data related to electoral bonds to the Modi government and the finance ministry, in particular, sometimes even within 48 hours which makes it difficult to buy the bank's argument that it will take months for it to match the buyer of the bonds with beneficiary parties.

For instance, the documents accessed by The Reporter's Collective suggests that the SBI collected data on electoral bonds from across the country within 48 hours after the deadline to encash the bonds ended and provided the information to the finance ministry. The report added that the bank shared such information religiously with the ministry after every window period of sale. The independent media platform has verified such missives being sent up to 2020.

Interestingly, the report pointed out that electoral bond-related work  – from printing to redemption – was overseen by a specific team of the SBI which was earlier called Transaction Banking Unit (TBU). This team collated information for the government at a short notice and kept the finance ministry officials informed about the trends in electoral bonds.

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