Amendment in Electoral Bonds Scheme

• The Electoral Bond Scheme has been amended by the Indian Government.

• The Union Finance Ministry issued a notification amending the Electoral Bonds Scheme to allow the sale of electoral bonds for extra 15 days in the year of general elections to the Legislative Assembly of States and UTs with legislature.

• The notification allows the Central Government to open additional one-week window for issuing electoral bond starting from November 9, 2022.

• Prior to this notification, these bonds can be bought by any individual in a period of 10 days each in the months of January, April, July and October as specified by the Central Government.

• Since assembly elections to various states and union territories are held each year, the amendment allows additional 15 days of bond sales annually.

• The changes came days before the Himachal Pradesh Assembly Elections (November 12) and weeks before Gujarat assembly elections that are set to be held in early December 2022.