NEW DELHI: Electoral bonds worth Rs 324.36 crore were encashed by various political parties in 2020-21, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary informed Parliament on Tuesday.
State Bank of India is the authorised bank to issue and encash electoral bonds.
The political party-wise detail of electoral bonds encashment is not collated centrally at SBI, he said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.
During 2020-21, 14th and 15 tranches of electoral bonds were issued and encashed.
In another reply, Chaudhary said the electoral bonds amounting to Rs 1,212.86 crore were encashed by political parties in the 19th tranche of electoral bonds.
As per the guidelines, the bond under this scheme may be purchased by a person, who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India, and a person being an individual can buy bonds, either singly or jointly with other individuals.
Accordingly, no electoral bonds are being issued to foreign entities, he said.
The Indian rupee was one of the better performing currencies amongst other Asian currencies like South Korean Won, Philippines Peso, Thai Baht and Japanese Yen during the last few quarters, he said in a reply to another question.
The exchange rate of the rupee is determined largely by the market forces of demand and supply, he said, adding the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) intervenes only to curb excessive volatility in the foreign exchange market and to maintain orderly conditions therein without targeting any specific level of the exchange rate.
Replying to another question, Chaudhary said the RBI in its circular dated May 2021 advised its regulated entities dealing in virtual currencies to continue to carry out customer due diligence process in line with regulations governing standards for Know Your Customer, Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Financing of Terrorism, among others.