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The Money Desk · Blog
Re:

Electoral Bonds Ended—but Is Cash Funding Still the Real Story?

Electoral bonds exposed a major source of party funding, but “unknown-source” receipts are not proof of cash. Here’s what the available figures do—and don’t—show.
From TheFinanceBase Team3 min to read
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Electoral bonds are no longer a legal funding channel, and disclosures revealed how much parties received through them. But the available figures do not establish that physical cash is now political parties’ dominant source of funding. What they do show is that opacity persists through other channels, including donations reported as coming from “unknown sources.”

What the Supreme Court decided

On 15 February 2024, the Supreme Court of India struck down the Electoral Bond Scheme and related provisions introduced through amendments to the Representation of the People Act, the Income Tax Act and the Companies Act. The Court held that nondisclosure of political-funding information violated citizens’ right to information under Article 19(1)(a). It directed that the scheme cease and ordered disclosure of bond data.

The bonds had been purchased from the State Bank of India and donated to eligible political parties. Following the Court’s orders, the disclosure exercise covered bond purchases and redemptions from 12 April 2019 through 15 February 2024. This made that bond activity more visible; it did not provide a complete account of every way parties receive money.

What the disclosed bond figures show

In its March 2026 analysis of Election Commission disclosures, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) reports that political parties received ₹163,080.16 million in electoral-bond donations across financial years 2017–18 to 2023–24. ADR says the BJP received ₹82,517.51 million—50.599% of that total—and more than the combined receipts of the next nine parties listed. These figures describe bond donations, not all political funding, and are ADR’s analysis rather than findings made by the Court.

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Why “unknown source” does not mean “cash”

Political parties are not required to identify individual donors for contributions below ₹20,000. ADR’s analysis reports that, over FY 2004–05 to FY 2023–24, the BJP recorded ₹39,929.33 million and the Indian National Congress (INC) ₹48,484.90 million in income from “unknown sources.” ADR excludes electoral-bond receipts from this category after the Court-ordered disclosures made bond data public.

“Unknown source” describes a gap in public identification; it does not by itself establish that the money was handed over in physical cash. The category cannot be treated as a cash-only total, and the figures span a long period rather than measuring the current share of party income received in cash.

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How other funding channels differ

Funding channels can differ on four separate questions: whether cash is allowed, who knows the donor, whether the party receiving funds is identified publicly, and whether smaller contributions are aggregated below a reporting threshold. Those are not interchangeable measures of transparency: a non-cash payment may still leave the public unable to trace its original donor to a particular party.

Electoral trusts

ADR reports that electoral trusts do not accept cash contributions. Their filings identify contributing companies and recipient parties, but do not necessarily show which contributing company’s funds benefited which party. The channel is non-cash, but the public disclosure may not reveal the full donor-to-recipient trail.

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Below-threshold contributions and other receipts

The below-₹20,000 identification threshold means individual donors may not be named publicly for those contributions. Together with other reporting categories, this leaves forms of funding opacity even after electoral bonds ended. It does not establish how much of that money is physical cash.

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So, does cash remain the real story?

The evidence supports a narrower conclusion: political-funding transparency remains an issue, but the available figures do not establish that cash is currently the dominant channel or quantify the present amount of party funding received specifically in physical cash. A current, cash-specific breakdown would be needed to make that claim. Electoral bonds exposed a substantial and concentrated stream of party funding; ending the scheme did not, by itself, resolve opacity across all the other streams.

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