The PM CARES Fund has disclosed that it held ₹8,452 crore as of March 31, 2025, after its audited financial statements for two consecutive years were uploaded on its official website following a prolonged delay.
The audit statements for FY 2023-24 and FY 2024-25 were made public on August 17. The accounts were audited on August 6 and signed by the auditors a day later, on August 7.
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According to the statement for 2024-25, the fund received more than ₹1,200 crore through donations and interest earned on deposits during the financial year. Despite the sizeable corpus, its recorded expenditure for the year ending March 31, 2025, stood at only ₹87 lakh.
The latest disclosure provides a glimpse into the fund’s financial position but leaves several questions about its functioning, including details of how and from whom contributions were received, how the money has been utilised and what criteria were followed for spending.
Fund Built Up Massive Corpus During COVID-19
The PM CARES Fund was established in March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic triggered an unprecedented health and economic emergency, with the stated objective of responding to emergency and disaster situations.
The fund accumulated around ₹13,000 crore during its first three years, with approximately ₹3,000 crore collected within its first week.
At the time, the government encouraged contributions to the fund and said it was eligible to receive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) donations because it had been established by the central government. Ministers also appealed to public officials to contribute their salaries towards the fund.
However, questions over the fund’s transparency emerged soon after. When demands were raised for greater disclosure, the government maintained that the PM CARES Fund was a trust and not a public authority under the Right to Information Act, and therefore was not subject to RTI obligations in the same manner as government bodies.
Questions Over Transparency Continue
Concerns about the fund’s financial disclosures have persisted, particularly over delays in making audit reports available.
More recently, the Prime Minister’s Office informed the Lok Sabha Secretariat that questions and other parliamentary interventions concerning the PM CARES Fund were not admissible under the House’s Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business.
Transparency activists, including Anjali Bhardwaj, have also pursued greater disclosure of information about the fund through courts and Information Commissions.
In earlier proceedings and representations, concerns were raised that the absence of detailed public information about donors and utilisation could undermine accountability. Transparency advocates have drawn parallels with concerns surrounding the Electoral Bonds scheme, particularly over donor anonymity and limited public scrutiny.
They have argued that when large contributions remain shielded from public examination, it can create vulnerabilities to corruption, quid-pro-quo arrangements, regulatory inaction and potential misuse of institutional power.
The publication of the latest audited statements therefore provides new financial information about PM CARES, but questions surrounding donor disclosure, expenditure decisions, accountability and the prolonged delay in publishing its accounts remain central to the broader debate over the fund’s transparency.
(Inputs from THE WIRE)
Edited by: moonmoon Borah
