2) anda ora oet Bharatiya Janata Party ced My Date: 17 Aug. 2017 yc yyeD To, Hon'ble Shri Arun Jaitley Ji Union Minister of Finance, Defence & Corporate Affairs Govt. of India ov noselo34 F IP 2017 eAPI2O17 Sir, We congratulate you on coming out with this path-breaking and innovative scheme to cleanse the political system by bringing in clean money. Our party is firmly committed to promoting value based politics and supports any step taken in the direction of accountability and transparency in public life. Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji has given a vision of “New India” by 2022. Taking a pledge towards a Corruption-free India is a crucial component of this. This Electoral Bonds scheme will be a decisive step in this direction. Our party believes that political funding should be a choice exercised by our citizens based on their belief that the funding given to such political party will result in implementation of the best governance standards and policies in the country and lay the foundation to benefit the country, now and for our future generations. With this background, people should be free to fund the political party of their choice without being concerned about their identities being disclosed, if that is their preference. The Electoral Bonds scheme will usher a new paradigm in political funding in India. With honest tax paid funds, donors can give donation to any political party of their choice, while about maintaining the confidentially of the donors and the party to whom funds are given by them. We believe that the new Electoral Bond scheme should only allow funding by donors who have cleared KYC checks proposed on their purchase, and payment should be made only by account payee cheques or by electronic clearing systems or digital systems. To enable and encourage people of all strata to participate in the process, while protecting their identities from being disclosed, if that is their preference, the Bonds should also be available in denominations of Rs, 2,000/-, Rs. 5,000/- and Rs. 10,000/- in addition to higher denominations. One of the other key concerns has been the issue of confidentiality of the identity of the contributor to the political funding, Many companies have been unable to join the political funding process because of the fear of disclosure of their identities if 11, areas dre, af Ree—110.001, gH : 29005700 dhe : 29005787 a 11, Ashok Road, New Delhi-110 001, Phone : 23005700 Fax : 23005787.they made payment by way of cheques or demand drafts. It is reported that some companies feared facing reprisals that were influenced by political parties - whether in or out of power. As a result, many political parties were deprived of clean money. While it has been assured that banks issuing the Electoral Bonds will not disclose the identity of the contributors, we would recommend that the Electoral Bonds should be issued without any serial number or identification marks that can be used later, on to identify the contributor. We are a national political party spread across the length and breadth of the country from North to South and East to West. We have hundreds of district units and thousands of party offices spread all over. Our donations are usually from people all over the country, particularly small donors who are either members of the BJP (ours is the largest political party in the world) or well-wishers and supporters who believe in our political ideology. Therefore, these Bonds will be collected by hundreds of units all over India and then submitted to banks for redemption. Hence, ‘we suggest as under — 1) The Bonds can be encashed within 60-90 days of issuance. 2) There should be a designated Bank account of each State where the Bonds can be encashed. 3) Individual, HUF, Trust, Company, LLP, Partnership Firm and any other legal entity that are citizens of India or registered / incorporated in India. 4) Political party should not be responsible to ensure that the donor is not a foreign source, since, we will not have the identity of the donor. This responsibility of checking foreign source should be on the Bank issuing the Bonds 5) Receipt issued by the Electoral Bond issuing Bank should constitute proof of political donation and the donor should be able to enjoy the income tax exemptions as allowed under the Income Tax Act, 1961 We hope that you will find the suggestions useful, and will come out with a scheme for Electoral Bonds at the earliest. Yours sincerely, eC Bhupendra Yadav! 3. oo..'> General Secretary Bharatiya Janata P