Expired Election Bonds: Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR Tops List, with Rs 9.63 Crore Still Uncashed
According to official data analyzed by News18, electoral bonds worth Rs 9.63 crore expired between April 2019 and January 2024 since no political parties paid the 130 bonds.
According to new data released by the Election Commission on Thursday, 18,741 electoral bonds totaling more than Rs 12,000 crore were bought and paid between April 2019 and January 2024.
Top of the list on the expired list is Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR, which was the largest donor in the now-banned scheme. Only Future Gaming and Hotel Services PR contributed Rs 3 crore of the Rs 9.63 crore total value of the bonds. On January 21, 2023, the Future Group bought three bonds that were never redeemed.
It’s interesting to note that the Future Group was the only company to have bought bonds worth more than Rs 1 crore out of the list of uncashed bonds. Other businesses and individuals bought bonds worth no more than Rs 10 lakh.
ECL Finance Ltd. came in second place behind the Future group, having invested Rs 2 crore in 20 bonds in May 2019. According to protocol, these bonds, each worth Rs 10 lakh, expired after 15 days. Edelweiss Rural & Corporate Services Limited paid Rs 1 crore for ten bonds that matured in the same month.
More than 62% of all funds that have expired were held by these three companies.
According to News18’s analysis of the data, 29 of the 130 bonds had a denomination of Rs 1,000, or Rs 29,000. Thirty-three had denominations of Rs 1 lakh, while two had denominations of Rs 10,000. There were 63 bonds with a face value of Rs 10 lakh, totaling Rs 6.3 crore.
Additionally, seven bonds worth Rs 25,000 that Anand Agrawal bought on January 21, 2023, expired. Among them were two with a value of Rs 10,000.
AFTER AN ELECTORAL BOND EXPIRES, WHAT HAPPENS?
The Prime Minister’s Relief Fund (PMRF) would receive the amount of bonds that are not paid within 15 days after issuance, as per the plan.
The PMRF received 146 bonds totaling Rs 20.28 crore between March 2018 and July 2021, according to statistics from the Association for Democratic Reforms.
The specifics of the bonds bought after April 2019 are included in the statistics that the ECI released on Thursday.
