THE PRIME MINISTER’S Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund has uploaded its officially audited account details on its website for the financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25 on August 17, 2026. PM Narendra Modi launched the relief fund during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 with the aim to collect donations that will be utilized in aid missions during emergency and distress situations, like the pandemic. However, the last two years audit report has raised questions on whether these funds are really being used for the intended purpose or not.

RTI Activist Anjali Bhardwaj, while posting the audit report on X, particularly pointed to the FY 2024-25 report. The report for that year shows that only ₹88 lakh were used in citizen relief and assistance out of the total corpus of ₹8,452 crore. That amounts to 0.01% of the total PM CARES Fund, raising questions on why such a large sum of money was idle.

The RTI activist further asked about the missing information from the audit. She noted that ₹324 crore were listed as refunded from implementing agencies, but no information was given on what these payments were for and why they were refunded. She asked, "Were refunds done to evade accountability for faulty equipment?"

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Bhardwaj also observed that the audit report mentions "Accompanying notes to the Financial Statements -1 to 16" at the end. This raises more questions about why these accompanying notes were not uploaded in the public domain along with the audits.

The activist writes, "A fund set up to help citizens during disasters, which has accumulated thousands of crores (including from foreign sources), is shrouded in secrecy. Still no information available on sources of funds. The PMCARES Fund continues to evade public scrutiny by refusing to submit itself to the RTI Act."

The main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, also flagged several concerns about the PM CARES fund after the recent audit report was made public. From the inception of the fund in 2020, the opposition has been against it, raising questions on the necessity of it when the Prime Minister's Disaster Relief Fund already exists since 1948.

More details to follow.

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