Govt spent nearly Rs 4,000 crore for EVMs ahead of Lok Sabha polls

NEW DELHI: The central government had spent about Rs 4000 crore in 2018-19 on procurement of EVMs for the recently-held Lok Sabha elections.

In this Budget, Rs 1,000 crore has been earmarked for the Lok Sabha elections.

According to the budget document, the provision is for meeting carry forward liability in respect of charges for conduct of Lok Sabha elections.


Another 339.54 crore has been earmarked in the Budget for the reimbursement of central government's share on normal election expenditure to the state and UT governments and cost of preparation and printing of electoral rolls.

The fund will also be used on the destruction of obsolete EVMs.

Rs 3902.17 crore were spent last year for the procurement of electronic voting machines.

The Lok Sabha elections were held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19.

Over 10 lakh EVMs and an equal number of paper trail machines were used for the elections. At least one control unit and one ballot unit makes for one EVM.

This is for the first time that paper trail machines were deployed in all polling stations -- nearly 10.5 lakh -- in a Lok Sabha election.