Govt curtails sale period of electoral bonds in May to 5 days from 10 days

The government Wednesday curtailed the time period for sale of electoral bonds by the SBI in the current month to only 5 days from May 6, instead of 10 days as was announced earlier.

The government, however, did not give any reason for reducing the time period for sale of electoral bonds.

"The Government of India has now decided to restrict the next phase of Electoral Bonds sale to May 6, 2019 to May 10, 2019 (instead of May 6, 2019 to May 15, 2019 scheduled and notified earlier)," a finance ministry statement said.

Ahead of the general elections, the government in February had announced that electoral bonds will be sold in three tranches from March 1-15, April 1-20 and May 6-15.

The 7-phase general elections, which begun on April 11, will continue till May 19 and counting of vote will take place on May 23.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is hearing a petition by NGO 'Association of Democratic Reforms' which had prayed that the issuance of electoral bonds be stayed or the names of donors