The Government of India has notified the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 vide Gazette Notification No. 20 dated 2nd January, 2018.

As per provision of the Scheme, Electoral Bonds may be purchased only by the citizen of India. A person being an individual can buy Electoral Bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals. In case of the Political parties registered under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951(1943 -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 received the Electoral Bonds.

The Electoral Bonds shall be valid for fifteen calendar days from the date of issue and no payments to be made to any payee Political Party after the expiry of the validity period. State Bank of India(SBI) has been authorized to issue and en-cash Electoral Bonds through its 29 Authorized Branches (as per list enclosed) in the month of May 2019.

This Notification is an Amendment of the earlier Notification issued on February 28, 2019. This date will indicate the schedule of insurance/ redemption of Electoral Bonds during the period March to May 2019.

Presently, the Government of India has decided to regulate the next Phase of Electoral Bonds sale to 06.05.2019- 10.05.2019 (instead of 06.05.2019- 15.05.2019 scheduled and notified earlier)