2 weeks ago
PM CARES Audit Fuels Dispute Over Spending and Transparency
The PM CARES Fund is a pool of donated money meant to help during emergencies.
By March 2025, it contained about ₹8,452 crore.
Most of that money was kept in fixed deposits, which can earn interest.
During the latest financial year, the Fund spent ₹87.85 lakh.
Opposition leaders said this was too little while people were facing disasters.
Supporters of the Fund said it is an emergency reserve and does not need to spend all its money every year.
They also pointed to much larger spending during the COVID-19 crisis.
The article says the Fund is financed by voluntary donations and is audited by private accountants rather than the CAG.
The PM CARES Fund held ₹8,452.07 crore as of March 31, 2025, with nearly 93% in fixed deposits.
The Fund received about ₹480 crore in donations and earned approximately ₹475 crore in interest during FY 2024-25.
Opposition figures focused on the ₹87.85 lakh spent in FY 2024-25, calling it evidence of underutilisation.
The report’s defenders cited earlier spending, including about ₹3,976 crore in FY 2020-21 for pandemic-related measures.
The Fund is audited by private chartered accountants and is outside RTI, according to the article’s account of Supreme Court findings.
- Who
- The PM CARES Fund, the Modi government, opposition figures including Congress MP Pawan Khera, and commentators who criticized or defended the Fund.
- What
- An audit covering FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25 prompted a dispute over the Fund’s balance, expenditure, audit arrangements, and transparency.
- Where
- India.
- When
- The audit covered FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25; the cited political reactions were published on August 18, 2026.
- Why
- Opposition voices questioned why only ₹87.85 lakh was spent in FY 2024-25 and why the Fund is not audited by the CAG or covered by RTI, while defenders said it is an emergency reserve financed by voluntary donations.
Critics of the Fund
Defenders of the Fund
FY 2024-25 spending
Critics of the Fund
Opposition figures and critics argued that spending only ₹87.85 lakh from a corpus of ₹8,452 crore showed that the Fund was underutilised, including during natural disasters.
Defenders of the Fund
Defenders said the figure covers only FY 2024-25 and does not represent the Fund’s entire history; they cited approximately ₹3,976 crore spent in FY 2020-21 and ₹15.59 crore in FY 2023-24.
Need to spend the corpus
Critics of the Fund
Critics questioned why large sums remained in the Fund while communities affected by disasters needed relief and rehabilitation.
Defenders of the Fund
The article argued that an emergency reserve is not expected to spend its entire balance annually and should retain money for sudden or unpredictable crises.
Audit and transparency
Critics of the Fund
Critics questioned why the Fund was audited by private accountants rather than the CAG and why it was outside the RTI framework.
Defenders of the Fund
The article said the Supreme Court viewed the Fund as a public charitable trust financed entirely by voluntary donations, rather than budgetary or government money, and therefore not a public authority under RTI; it also said private charitable trusts are audited by chartered accountants.
Key facts
- Corpus on March 31, 2025
- ₹8,452.07 crore
- Fixed deposits
- ₹7,846.65 crore, or nearly 93% of the corpus
- FY 2024-25 donations
- ₹479.04 crore in domestic donations and ₹92.83 lakh in foreign donations
- FY 2024-25 interest
- ₹469.37 crore from fixed deposits and ₹5.77 crore from savings accounts
- FY 2024-25 expenditure
- ₹87.85 lakh
- FY 2023-24 expenditure
- Approximately ₹15.59 crore
- FY 2020-21 expenditure
- Approximately ₹3,976 crore, including spending on vaccines, ventilators, oxygen plants, hospitals, and testing laboratories
Quotes
Rajdeep Sardesai
Indian journalist and TV personality
“Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund, which was set up in March 2020 during COVID to deal with emergency/distress situations, has accumulated a corpus of Rs 8,452 crore by end of FY 2024-25, but just Rs 87 lakh was…”
opindia.com
“Only 0.01% of the ₹8,452 crore available has been utilised — even as natural calamities devastate communities across the country and thousands need relief and rehabilitation. ₹8,452 crore sitting idle while people suffer. PM CARES? Hardly,”
opindia.com
Joy
Social media user commenting on audit
“PM Cares Fund is not audited by CAG even though it takes taxpayers funds. It is audited by M/s KKC & Associates LLP. The CEO of the firm is Gautam Shah. Auditor is Tejas Parikh.”
opindia.com
Sources
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