PM CARES fund saw 592% jump in donations in 2024-25 to ₹480 crore, spent 0.1% of that

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Domestic donations to the PM CARES Fund fell by 30% to nearly ₹479 crore during the fiscal year 2024-2025 while foreign donations also declined by 18% to ₹92.8 lakh, according to its latest audit report. File | Photo Credit: pmcares.gov.in

Domestic donations to the PM CARES Fund fell by 30% to nearly ₹479 crore during the fiscal year 2024-2025 while foreign donations also declined by 18% to ₹92.8 lakh, according to its latest audit report.

The total balance in PM CARES Fund stood at ₹8,452 crore as on March 31, 2025, up from ₹7,173 crore a year ago.

Of this, ₹7,846 crore was parked in fixed deposits and ₹605 crore in savings bank accounts, the report said.

The domestic donations received by the PM CARES in fiscal year 2023-24 stood at ₹681.8 crore, while it received foreign donations totalling ₹1.13 crore.

The fund spent ₹87.8 lakh on PM CARES for Children Scheme during 2024-25, sharply down from ₹15.37 crore in the previous year.

Total payments made during the year 2024-25 was ₹87.85 lakh, as against ₹15.6 crore in the previous fiscal.

A study of the audited statements on the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund website shows that the voluntary domestic contribution peaked at ₹7,184 crore in 2020-21 and then fell to ₹1,896 crore in 2021-22, before declining further to ₹909 crore in 2022-23.

Foreign contribution has seen a sharper decline, registering a high of ₹495 crore in 2020-21, before falling to ₹40 crore and ₹2.57 crore in the next two years. The foreign contribution now stands at ₹92.8 lakh, the second lowest since ₹39.7 lakh in the first year of 2019-20.

The Narendra Modi government set up the PM CARES Fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like the one posed by the Covid pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected. It was registered as a public charitable trust.

The Prime Minister is the ex officio chairman of the fund that consists entirely of voluntary contributions and does not receive any budgetary support.

The fund has been used over the years to boost emergency care, including for setting up oxygen plants and purchasing ventilators in hospitals run by the central and state governments as part of the larger exercise to meet the challenges posed by the pandemic.

In 2021-22, an amount of ₹1,703 crore was spent on pressure-swing adsorption oxygen plants, besides spending ₹835 crore on ventilators, out of a total expenditure of nearly ₹1,938 crore.