The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund had a corpus of Rs 8,452 crore by the end of the financial year 2024-’25, showed audit statements published on Monday.

The fund received more than Rs 1,270 crore in domestic and foreign donations, interests on deposits and refund from implementing agencies during the financial year 2024-’25.

Nearly 93% of the funds available at the end of the fiscal year 2024-’25 had been held as fixed deposits. It reported an expenditure of Rs 87.8 lakh, mainly towards the PM Cares for Children Scheme.

The fund had a corpus of Rs 7,173 crore by the end of fiscal year 2023-’24.

The accounts for the fiscal years 2023-’24 and 2024-’25 were audited on August 6 and signed by the auditors on August 7, the documents showed.

The PM Cares Fund was established in March 2020 with the stated objective of being a dedicated national fund to deal with “any kind of emergency or distress situation” in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The fund has been the subject of criticism from Opposition parties, who have raised questions about its transparency and have questioned the need to create the reserve when the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund existed.

The prime minister’s relief fund was set up in 1948 to provide immediate relief to those affected by natural disasters, accidents or riots. It is entirely funded by voluntary contributions by individuals and organisations

‘Why is fund keeping large sums of money idle?’

After the documents were published, social activist Anjali Bhardwaj noted on Tuesday that the PM Cares Fund had utilised only 0.01% of the corpus available. “Why is the PMCARES Fund keeping such large sums of money idle?” she asked.

“[Rs] 324 crore was refunded by implementing agencies – but no info on what these payments were for and why these were refunded?” she said on social media. “Which agency refunded? Were refunds done to evade accountability for faulty equipment?”

Bhardwaj also asked why the accompanying notes to the audit report had not been uploaded to the PM Cares Fund website.

She said that the fund that has accumulated “thousands of crores (including from foreign sources), is shrouded in secrecy” and that it continues to “evade public scrutiny by refusing to submit itself to the RTI Act”.

The Union government has on several occasions said that the PM Cares Fund does not come under the ambit of the Right to Information Act.

In December 2020, the Union government said in a reply to an RTI query that the fund was “owned and established” by the government. However, it said that the fund does not come under the RTI Act because it receives funds from private sources.

In September 2021, the Union government told the Delhi High Court that the PM Cares Fund can neither be listed as “the state”, nor a “public authority” under the RTI Act.

In February, The Indian Express reported that the Prime Minister’s Office had told the Lok Sabha Secretariat that questions related to the PM Cares Fund are not permissible under rules related to the conduct of business in Parliament’s Lower House.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.

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