PM CARES Fund Balance Hits Record ₹8,452 Crore

PM CARES Fund Balance Hits Record ₹8,452 Crore

General Studies Paper II: Emergency Fund, Government Policies & Interventions

Why in News?

Recently, PM CARES Fund released its audited financial statements for FY 2023–24 and FY 2024–25, showing a record closing balance of ₹8,452.07 crore as of 31 March 2025.

What is the PM CARES Fund?

About: PM CARES stands for Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund.
- It is a public charitable trust created as a dedicated mechanism to respond to emergencies and distress, rather than a conventional Budgetary Government Fund.
Establishment: The Fund was established in March 2020 amid the COVID-19 crisis.
- Its Trust Deed was registered on 27 March 2020 in New Delhi under the Registration Act, 1908.
Legal Status: PM CARES is legally structured as a public charitable trust.
- It is not part of the Consolidated Fund of India and receives no budgetary support.
- Its resources consist of voluntary contributions.
Objectives: Its mandate covers public-health emergencies, natural or man-made calamities and distress.
- It can support healthcare infrastructure, pharmaceutical facilities, and financial assistance to affected populations.
Trustees: The Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairperson, while the Defence, Home and Finance Ministers are ex-officio Trustees.
- The Chairperson has nominated Justice K.T. Thomas (Retd.) and Kariya Munda as trustees; trustees serve pro bono.
Funding Sources: The Fund relies on voluntary domestic contributions from individuals and organisations, including eligible Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contributions.
- Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) may contribute from permissible sources, but budgetary funds of PSUs cannot be contributed.
- Contributions by companies and PSUs to PM CARES qualify as Corporate Social Responsibility expenditure under the Companies Act, 2013.
Tax Benefits: Donations qualify for 100% deduction under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act 2025, subject to applicable provisions.
- The Fund itself is exempt from income tax under Section 10(23C).
Foreign Funding: PM CARES has Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA) exemption and a separate account for foreign donations.
- However, the Fund’s assistance is intended for relief within India.
Emergency-Response Role: Its most significant application was during COVID-19, supporting emergency healthcare and relief.
- The mandate also extends beyond pandemics to future disasters, public-health emergencies and other distress situations.
- During COVID-19, PM CARES funded the procurement and installation of more than 700 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants inside public health facilities.
- The fund financed the procurement of 1 lakh portable oxygen concentrators distributed to states.
- PM CARES allocated ₹2,000 crores to procure 50,000 “Made in India” ventilators to reinforce the capacity of intensive care units (ICUs).
- A lump sum of ₹1,000 crores was released to States and Union Territories to support migrant workers.

Latest Audited Figures of PM CARES Fund

Audit & Reporting Period: The latest audited Receipt and Payment Accounts relate to FY 2024–25, ending 31 March 2025. The accounts were made public in August 2026, more than a year after the financial year ended.
Closing Balance: The Fund ended FY2024–25 with ₹8,452.06 crore, its highest-ever closing balance.
- This represented a 17.83% increase over ₹7,173.03 crore at the end of FY2023–24.
Total Contributions: Fresh contributions during FY2024–25 were about ₹479.96 crore.
- This comprised ₹479.04 crore domestic donations and approximately ₹92.83 lakh foreign donations.
Domestic Donations: Domestic donations fell from ₹681.81 crore in FY2023–24 to ₹479.04 crore in FY2024–25, a decline of roughly 30%.
Foreign Contributions: Foreign donations declined to approximately ₹92.83 lakh, compared with ₹1.13 crore in FY2023–24.
Interest Income: The Fund earned approximately ₹475.14 crore in interest: ₹469.37 crore from fixed deposits and ₹5.77 crore from savings-bank accounts.
Refund:
- The accounts recorded approximately ₹13.49 lakh as refund of Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) on interest earned from fixed deposits.
- A significant ₹324.65 crore was recorded as “refund from implementing agencies.”
Fixed-Deposit Concentration: At year-end, ₹7,846.65 crore, approximately 93% of the corpus, was held in fixed deposits.
- The remaining ₹605.41 crore was held in savings-bank accounts.
Expenditure: Total payments during FY2024–25 were only ₹87.85 lakh, compared with ₹15.59 crore in FY2023–24.
- Of this, ₹87.84 lakh went towards the PM CARES for Children Scheme, while only ₹451 represented bank/SMS charges.

Similar Relief Fund “PMNRF”

Name: The Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) is a public-contribution-based relief mechanism administered under the Prime Minister’s leadership.
- It provides assistance to people facing severe distress from natural calamities, major accidents and serious medical conditions.
Establishment: PMNRF was established in January 1948 by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, initially responding to the humanitarian crisis involving displaced persons from Partition.
- It subsequently evolved into a broader national mechanism for emergency relief and medical assistance.
Legal Status: PMNRF is not a statutory fund created by an Act of Parliament. It operates as a public charitable trust, with its administration associated with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
Administration: The Prime Minister heads the Fund, while its administration is handled through the PMO.
- Relief decisions are made considering the nature of the distress, available resources and existing commitments, giving PMNRF considerable flexibility in responding to individual cases.
Core Reliefs: Its principal purpose is to provide immediate financial assistance to families affected by floods, cyclones, earthquakes and other calamities, as well as major accidents.
- It can also support individuals requiring expensive treatment for serious diseases.
  - Historical examples include relief following the 2013 Uttarakhand floods and major disaster-related interventions in different States.
- Assistance can cover conditions involving cancer, kidney transplantation, heart surgery and other major medical interventions, subject to PMO consideration.
Funding Structure: PMNRF is financed through voluntary contributions from the public, rather than normal Union Budget allocations.
- Contributions can be made by Indian as well as foreign nationals.
Tax Benefit: Contributions to PMNRF are eligible for 100% deduction from taxable income under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, subject to applicable tax provisions.
- PMNRF has historically received foreign contributions as a public trust, and official information states that this has been the case since 2011.
- Unlike PM CARES, however, PMNRF is not generally presented by the government as a CSR-eligible expenditure mechanism under the Companies Act.

Concerns Associated with the PM CARES Fund

Ambiguity Over “Public Authority” Status: The central government maintains that PM CARES is a private charitable trust and not a “public authority” under Section 2(h) of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.
- Critics argue this contradicts its structure: it uses the national emblem, is hosted on the government domain, is chaired by the Prime Minister, and is administered by the PMO. This creates a deficit in citizens’ right to information regarding public-facing funds.
Erosion of Parliamentary Oversight: The PMO clarified to the Lok Sabha Secretariat that parliamentary questions regarding PM CARES are inadmissible.
- Under Lok Sabha Rules, questions must relate to matters primarily the concern of the Government of India.
- Since PM CARES does not draw from the Consolidated Fund of India, it bypasses parliamentary scrutiny, weakening the executive’s accountability to the legislature.
Absence of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Audit: Unlike statutory funds, PM CARES is audited by a private chartered accountant, not the CAG.
- Critics contend that this omission from oversight by the supreme audit institution undermines accountability for a fund that receives significant public-facing donations.
Low Fund Utilization: Audited reports have raised questions regarding expenditure efficiency.
- While the corpus has grown into thousands of crores, year-on-year spending has faced scrutiny for being low, leading to concerns about the timely deployment of resources for relief efforts.
Lack of Accompanying Audit Notes: Financial disclosures have drawn criticism due to vague accounting entries, including large refunds from undefined “implementing agencies”.
- Furthermore, the lack of detailed explanatory notes in audits obscures transparency regarding the fund’s operational details.
Diversion of Public Sector Salaries: A large share of contributions originates from PSUs and government salaries, prompting debates on why public money lacks public accountability.
- Critics argue that channeling public funds (via PSUs) into a “private trust” permits them to evade standard, rigorous public audit mechanisms.
Institutional Overlap: The existence of PM CARES is seen as undermining the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), a statutory body under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.
- By opting for an ad-hoc trust over the established, mandatory auditing of the NDRF, critics argue the government bypasses institutionalized disaster management protocols.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

1. What is the PM CARES Fund balance in 2026?
₹8,452.06 crore was the closing balance as of 31 March 2025, the latest audited figure released in 2026.

2. Why has the PM CARES Fund corpus increased to ₹8,452 crore?
The corpus grew mainly through interest income, donations and refunds, despite lower fresh contributions and minimal expenditure during FY2024–25.

3. What is the PM CARES Fund used for?
It finances emergency relief, healthcare infrastructure, disaster response, research and assistance during public-health emergencies and other distress situations.

4. Who audits the PM CARES Fund?
Its accounts are audited by an independent private auditor appointed by the trustees, rather than the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

5. Does PM CARES receive government budgetary support?
No. PM CARES does not receive government budgetary support; it is funded through voluntary contributions and other permitted receipts.

Disclaimer: Information in this article is based on official announcements and public records. Regulations and implementation details may evolve over time.