PM Cares Fund

The Supreme Court sought a response from the government to a plea that contributions made to the PM CARES fund to fight COVID-19 should be transferred entirely to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF).

• ‘Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund)’ is a public charitable trust that has been set up keeping in mind the need for having a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected.

• To undertake and support relief or assistance of any kind relating to a public health emergency or any other kind of emergency, calamity or distress, either man-made or natural, including the creation or up-gradation of healthcare or pharmaceutical facilities, other necessary infrastructure, funding relevant research or any other type of support.
• To render financial assistance, provide grants of payments of money or take such other steps as may be deemed necessary by the Board of Trustees to the affected population.
• To undertake any other activity, which is not inconsistent with the above Objects.

• Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairman of the PM CARES Fund and Minister of Defence, Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Finance, Government of India are ex-officio Trustees of the Fund.
• The Chairperson of the Board of Trustees (Prime Minister) shall have the power to nominate three trustees to the Board of Trustees who shall be eminent persons in the field of research, health, science, social work, law, public administration and philanthropy.
• Any person appointed a Trustee shall act in a pro bono capacity.

• The fund consists entirely of voluntary contributions from individuals/organizations and does not get any budgetary support. The fund will be utilised in meeting the objectives as stated above.
• Donations to PM CARES Fund would qualify for 100% exemption under the Income Tax Act, 1961.
• Donations to PM CARES Fund will also qualify to be counted as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure under the Companies Act, 2013
• PM CARES Fund has also got exemption under the FCRA and a separate account for receiving foreign donations has been opened. This enables PM CARES Fund to accept donations and contributions from individuals and organizations based in foreign countries.

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• The Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) set up in January 1948, have similar objectives.
• The fund doesn’t comes under the ambit of the RTI Act or oversight by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
• The PM CARES is opaque regarding the amount of money collected, names of donors, the expenditure of the fund so far, or names of beneficiaries. The PMNRF provides annual donation and expenditure information without any detailed break-up.
• The PM CARES Fund’s trust deed is not available for public scrutiny.
• The decision to allow uncapped corporate donations to the fund to count as CSR expenditure — a facility not provided to PMNRF — goes against previous guidelines stating that CSR should not be used to fund government schemes. A government panel had previously advised against allowing CSR contributions to the PMNRF on the grounds that the double benefit of tax exemption would be a “regressive incentive”.