Electoral Bond Scheme amended

About 

• Recently, the Centre amended the Electoral Bond Scheme to grant itself the power to spell out an extra fortnight of electoral bond sales in years 

About scheme 

• The Government has notified the scheme of Electoral Bonds to cleanse the system of political funding in the country. 
• Features : 
  • Electoral Bond would be a bearer instrument in the nature of a Promissory Note and an interest free banking instrument. 
  • Eligibility  : A person being an individual can buy Electoral Bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals. Only the Political Parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (43 of 1951) and which secured not less than one per cent of the votes polled in the last General Election to the House of the People or the Legislative Assembly of the State, shall be eligible to receive the Electoral Bonds
  • Validity : The Electoral Bonds shall be valid for fifteen calendar days from the date of issue and no payment shall be made to any payee Political Party if the Electoral Bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period. The Electoral Bond deposited by an eligible Political Party in its account shall be credited on the same day
• Amendments : An additional period of fifteen days shall be specified by the Central Government in the year of general elections to the Legislative Assembly of States and Union territories with Legislature.”

Source:TH