PM CARES Fund Audit Report Out: Only ₹88 Lakh Out of ₹8,452 Crore Used in FY25; Opposition and Activists Raise Alarm

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.

Why Only 0.01% Fund Used in FY25: Activist Anjali Bhardwaj

RTI Activist Anjali Bhardwaj, while reposting the audit report on X, particularly  pointed to the FY 2024-25 data. The report for that year shows that only ₹88 lakh were used in citizen relief and assistance out of the 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."

Congress Flags More Discrepancies and Chinese Funders in PM CARES

The main opposition party, Indian National Congress, also flagged several discrepancies in the PM CARES. 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.

The Congress on its official X handle shared an accounting irregularity between statements from PM CARES and the Indian Oil Corporation Limited. While the Prime Minister’s fund claimed that ₹189.4 crore were transferred to IOCL for buying Liquid Oxygen Equipment in 2021-22, the Oil Corporation’s annual report states it only received ₹103.27 crore from PM CARES.

“Where did the remaining ₹86.1 Crore vanish? Swiss Banks?” Congress questioned. “This is nothing but Modi-Care fund, where private companies and public companies were forced to contribute including CSR funds. And that's why it was kept private so that CAG will not catch the frauds done in daylight.”

The opposition also raised the link of Chinese companies to the Fund, who are publicly admitted to have donated to it. In a separate post, Congress shared an article of The Wire, where it reported that TikTok (₹30 crore), Xiaomi (₹10 crore), Huawei (₹7 crore), OnePlus (₹1 crore) have donated to the PM Fund since 2020. In the case of Xiaomi and Huawei, both companies’ statements mention the total fund donated to PM CARES and CM relief funds of different states.

The audit report has put the Prime Minister’s project under the scanner. The question on whether this fund is a private entity or a government relief fund is still unanswered for many. While it has a government domain, it still doesn’t come under the purview of CAG or RTI, not making it liable to make its records public.

(This is an updated version of the article)

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