The government on Thursday approved the issuance of 22nd tranche of electoral bonds that will be available for sale on October 1. As part of an effort to bring transparency to political funding, electoral bonds have been pitched as an alternative to cash donations made to political parties. SBI is authorised to issue and issue electoral bonds through its 29 authorised branches from October 1 - 10, the finance ministry said in a statement. The authorised SBI branches include those in Lucknow, Shimla, Dehradun, Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Patna, New Delhi, Chandigarh, Srinagar, Gandhinagar, Bhopal, Raipur and Mumbai. The assembly election dates for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are likely to be announced in a few weeks. The 21st tranche of bond sales took place from July 1 - 10, 2022. The sale of the first batch of electoral bonds took place on March 1 -- 10, 2018. SBI is the only bank authorised to issue electoral bonds. An electoral bond will be valid for 15 days from the date of issuance. If the bond is deposited after the expiry of the validity period, no payment would be made to any political party, the statement said. Electoral bonds can be purchased by Indian citizens or entities that are incorporated or established in the country. The political parties that have secured more than 1 per cent of the votes in the last Lok Sabha or legislative assembly election are eligible to receive funding through electoral bonds.