New Delhi, Dec 27 (IANS): Continuing with its effort to cleanse the system of political funding, the government on Thursday announced the sale of seventh tranche of electoral bonds at 29 notified State Bank of India (SBI) branches during January 1-10.

"The SBI, in the VII phase of sale of electoral bonds, has been authorised to issue and encash electoral bonds through its 29 authorised branches w.e.f. 01.01.2019 to 10.01.2019, the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The government launched the Electoral Bond Scheme 2018 in January this year to provide a transparent alternative to cash donations to political parties. The sale of first batch of electoral bonds took place between March 1 and 10, 2018.

The electoral bonds will be valid for 15 calendar days from the date of issue and no payment will be made to any payee political party if the electoral bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period, the Ministry said.

"The electoral bond deposited by an eligible political party in its account shall be credited the same day," it noted. The bonds can be encashed only at the authorised branches.

These SBI branches are in cities like Delhi, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur, Jaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Kolkata, Patna, Ranchi, Guwahati, Hyderabad and Chennai.

As per the provisions of scheme, the bonds can be purchased by a person who is a citizen of India or incorporated or established in India. The person can buy bonds either individually or jointly with other individuals, it said.

Political parties that secured not less than one per cent of the votes polled in the last general election to the Lok Sabha or a state's Legislative Assembly are eligible to receive the bonds.