This story is a part of #PaisaPolitics, HuffPost Indias investigation into how the Modi government brought untraceable funds into Indian politics. Read the rest of our series here .

NEW DELHI When anonymous billionaires use electoral bonds to funnel thousands of crores into the coffers of Indias political parties, the Indian taxpayer pays the banking fees, commissions, printing costs and associated charges, documents reviewed by HuffPost India establish.

Neither the secretive billionaire donor, nor the recipient political party, pay a paisa to maintain the secure infrastructure of banking channels, accounts and printing presses that facilitate political donations. Instead, the money is paid from the Consolidated Fund of India, a Government of India account that includes all direct and indirect tax revenues. This is in sharp contrast to banking transfers conducted by ordinary citizens, which attract banking fees and commissions.

Thus far, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP ) has been the biggest beneficiary of the Indian taxpayers forced generosity. The party has raised the most money since the scheme was first unveiled. Reports from earlier this month show that 60% of the BJPs total funds raised through donations in 2018-19, Rs 1,450 crore, was through electoral bonds.

Worse, political donations are tax-free for the donor, so when companies and wealthy individuals donate to their party of choice, the Indian exchequer receives less tax an argument first made by none other than the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in 2017 in the course of the BJPs illegal, but ultimately successful, attempt to use the money bill route to implement the scheme.

Read how the Modi government illegally bypassed the Rajya Sabha in its haste to implement electoral bonds.

File notings, correspondence, internal notes and memos of the finance ministry reviewed by HuffPost India reveal that the decision to use public funds to facilitate political payments was hard-wired into the controversial electoral bonds scheme from its inception.

The documents suggest that the government initially meant to disclose the payment protocols in publicly available rules formulated to run the electoral bonds scheme. But eventually, the payment details were hidden away from public view in the internal records of the government and the State Bank of India (SBI), the public sector bank tasked with implementing the scheme.

SBI has refused to reply to recent Right To Information (RTI) applications asking exactly how much money it has billed the government for overseeing the sale and encashment of 12 rounds of electoral bonds since the scheme was first unveiled in February 2017 and implemented in March the following year (the 13th tranche took place earlier this month , days ahead of the Delhi assembly election).

Read how SBI has lied in its responses to RTI queries on electoral bonds.

Yet, previous RTI applications filed by Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd) reveal that SBI has charged the finance ministry Rs 3.24 crore for sale of bonds worth Rs 5,832 crore over 10 tranches between March 2018 and May 2019. The SBI charges the government Rs 5.5 for each Rs 1,000 worth of electoral bonds sold. It also charges the government an additional Rs 12 per transaction for digital bonds and Rs 50 for purchase of physically held bonds.

In addition, the Indian Security Press at Nashik (a unit of the government-owned Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd) charges Rs 25 for each electoral bond with secret numbering and special security features that it publishes for the SBI to use on governments instructions.

These sums might appear small, but it is worth asking why political parties or their donors cannot foot the bill for these donations.

An expensive affair

The Reserve Bank of India vehemently opposed electoral bonds when the Finance Ministry first asked the RBI for comments in January 2017. (Heres why ) Once the RBI was grudgingly brought on board, the finance ministry circulated an internal note on September 18, 2017, asking a vital question: What should be the commission payable to Banks/RBI in handling and issuing EBs?