Electoral Bonds case: State Bank of India excuses are laughable - Thomas FrancoThe News Minute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47iXqk4p2Fk A day before its deadline to furnish details of Electoral Bonds (EBs) after they were struck down, the State Bank of India (SBI) told the Supreme Court on March 5 that it needs extra time till June 30, nearly four months in addition to the three weeks already granted to it, to compile the data. SBI told the SC that it had kept only physical copies of the details of donors, which it will now have to match with the details of EBs stored digitally. Since 22,217 EBs were issued since April 12, 2019 – the date of an earlier interim SC judgement starting from which the court has now sought details – the SBI has claimed that this would be a time-consuming process needing months. TNM’s Senior News Editor Shabbir Ahmed speaks to Thomas Franco, former general secretary of the All India Bank Officers' Confederation (AIBOC) to the SBI’s excuses.
https://www.cenfa.org/sbi-in-the-news-for-wrong-reasons-once-again/
State Bank of India was in the news recently because of the downgrading of its ratings by Goldman Sachs. Before that, the economic research wing was questioned by economists for defending the Government by saying poverty and unemployment have reduced drastically.
Before that, it was on the news for granting a fresh loan of Rs.34000 crores to the Adani group.
But its recent appeal to the Supreme Court to provide time till June 30th to provide the list of purchasers of electoral bonds and parties which encashed them has brought a very bad image for SBI. In the digital era, the bank which is a pioneer in technology saying that it can’t reconcile the transactions and provide the list after 18 days of the Supreme Court order is unacceptable.
In a letter to the Director (Budget) Dept of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance dated 25/06/2018 SBI has stated that it has spent Rs.60,43,005/- for IT system development for Electoral Bonds...
In an RTI reply to Shri. Sanjeev B. Ezhava, dated 22.11.23, the SBI has provided details of electoral bonds for 6 years in just 6 days. Now, why does it require months?..
It is surprising that a company ‘Future Gaming’ has donated Rs.100 crores to a trust named “Prudent Electoral Trust” a trust approved by CBDT under the Electoral Trust Scheme 2013 (letter enclosed below). Is this trust playing the role of a broker between political parties, the Enforcement Directorate, CBI and companies that are doing illegal transactions? The answer will be there in the list. Supreme Court must ask SBI to provide the list immediately.