After a Delay of Two Years, PM CARES Discloses it Had Rs 8,452 Crore by March 31, 2025
New Delhi: The PM CARES fund uploaded its audit statements for the financial year 2023-24 and 2024-25 on its website a day ago, on August 17.
Accounts were audited on August 6 and signed by the auditors on August 7.
The statement for FY 2024-25 reveals that the Fund received over Rs 1,200 crore via donations and interests on deposits.
Rs 87 lakhs is recorded as expenditure for the year ending March 31, 2025.
As on March 31, 2025, PM CARES has Rs 8,452 crore in its accounts.
The PM CARES Fund was set up in March 2020, as COVID-19 broke, to deal with emergency and disaster. It amassed Rs 13,000 crore in the first three years, collecting around Rs 3,000 crore in just the first week itself.
At the time of collecting money, the government said the PM CARES fund could receive CSR money as it was set up by the central government. Ministers issued “appeals” for donation of salaries by public officials. But when people started asking for information, the government claimed the trust is not a public authority and hence is not answerable under the RTI Act.
More recently, the PMO told the Lok Sabha Secretariat that questions and other parliamentary interventions about the PM CARES Fund are not admissible in the Lok Sabha under its Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business. Questions have also been raised about missing audit reports of the fund.
Transparency activists including Anjali Bhardwaj, whole have tried to get more details on PM CARES via courts and Information Commissions have said in the past, “This lack of transparency resembles concerns raised around the Electoral Bonds Scheme, where donor anonymity limited public accountability."
"When large contributions are shielded from scrutiny, it opens the possibility of corruption through quid-pro-quo arrangements. Such opacity can make the system vulnerable to the same kinds of misuse which came to light in electoral bond controversies – quid pro quo arrangements, regularity inaction and extortion.”
Bhardwaj has asked why such a large amount of money were being kept idle in the fund as well.
Finally the audit statement of PMCARES Fund for 2024-25 has been made public! Key highlights-
-Utilised only 0.01% of available ₹ 8,452 crore! Why is the PMCARES Fund keeping such large sums of money idle?
-324 crore was refunded by implementing agencies- but no info on what… pic.twitter.com/4wgrZc0c8r— Anjali Bhardwaj (@AnjaliB_) August 18, 2026
She has also noted that there is no information on payments to the tune of Rs 324 crore which were "refunded by implementing agencies" for unknown reasons and by unknown agencies.
"Why have accompanying notes to the audit report not been uploaded?" Bhardwaj also asked.
This article went live on August eighteenth, two thousand twenty six, at thirty-six minutes past twelve at noon.The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
