New Delhi: The Central Government on Tuesday notified that the electoral bonds carry a serial number as part of in-built security feature to prevent counterfeiting, but the number is not accessible to anybody, including the government.
The Government notified this scheme days after it was revealed that electoral bonds carried a serial number invisible to the naked eye.
Electoral Bond is a bearer instrument in the nature of a Promissory Note.
The Electoral Bonds have some in-built security features to eliminate chances of forgery or presentation of fake bonds. These include a random serial number invisible to the naked eye.
This number is not noted by the State Bank of India (SBI) in any record associated with buyer or political party depositing a particular electoral bond. It is, thus not linked to any party transaction when the Bank issues a bond to the buyer. As such the number is not being used or can be used to track the donation or the buyer.
The purchaser is allowed to buy electoral bond’s only on due fulfillment of all the extant Know Your Customer (KYC) norms and by making payment from a bank account.
The Bond does not carry the name of payee or any other details by which the buyer can be identified. Likewise no detail of political party depositing the bonds is noted on the electoral bonds. Thus, any particular bond cannot be identified or associated with any particular buyer or political party deposits it.
SBI does not share the serial number with anybody, including the Government and users. (ANI)