23.50 (2.28%) State Bank of India (SBI) is planning to issue electoral bonds through its 29 Authorised Branches with effective from January 01, 2020 to January10, 2020. SBI is the only authorised bank to issue such bonds. The 29 specified SBI branches are in cities such as Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Shimla, Srinagar, Dehradun, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, Mumbai, and Lucknow. The sale of the first batch of electoral bonds took place from March 1-10, 2018.
According to provisions of the scheme, electoral bonds can be purchased by a person who is a citizen of India or entities incorporated or established in India. Registered political parties that have secured not less than 1 per cent of the votes polled in the last election of the Lok Sabha or legislative assembly are eligible to receive electoral bonds.
SBI is the country’s largest lender and it offers a wide range of services in the Personal Banking, Agriculture/ Rural, NRI services, SME and Corporate Banking etc.