The PM CARES Fund (Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund) was initially set up by the union government of India for dealing with emergencies including the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fund’s corpus has grown nearly three-fold has gone up to Rs. 10,990 Crore in the Fiscal Year of 2020-2021.
The disbursal of the fund has risen to Rs.3976 crore as per the latest audited statement. This disbursal is inclusive of Rs.1000 crore that was spent for migration welfare and more than Rs.1392 crore for the procurement of COVID Vaccination doses. The PM CARES Fund has recorded around Rs.494.91 crore as foreign contributions and more than Rs,7183 crores as voluntary contributions during the fiscal year.
The total contributions to the fund that was received in the year 2019-2020 were Rs.3076.62 crore and this was collected in the first five days of the fund being set up on March 27, 2020, with an initial corpus of Rs.2.25 lakhs. As per the details that were posted on the website of the PM CARES Fund (Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund), it is inclusive entirely of voluntary contributions from organisations or individuals and does not consist of any budgetary support.
The Union Government of India has used some of the money to buy medical equipment which included ventilators to strengthen the nation against the COVID-19 and the government has also provided relief to the migrants using the money from PM CARES Fund.
The Opposition parties have criticized the fund stating that the contributions and expenses of the fund are not transparent. This claim, however, has been rejected by the government.
The fund has disbursed Rs.1311 crore for the procurement of 50,000 Made-In-India ventilators to government hospitals across the nation, as per the latest audited statement. Rs.50 Crore has been used for the establishment of two 500-beds Coronavirus hospitals in Patna and Muzaffarpur, and around 16 RT-PCR testing labs have been established in 9 states of the country. Additionally, Rs.201.58 have been spent on the oxygen plants at various public healthcare facilities and Rs.20.4 crore was spent for the up-gradation of labs that were working on the development of Covid vaccines.
Rs.1000 crore from the fund was allocated to the States and the Union territories of the nation for the welfare of the migrants and Rs.1392.82 crore was disbursed for the procurement of 6.6 crore doses of Coronavirus vaccines. Rs.1.01 lakh has also been spent as the bank charges from the fund. The closing balance of the PM CARES Fund stood at Rs.7013.99 crore on March 31, 2021, which is double Rs.3076.62 a year ago.
The PM CARES Fund was set up as a charitable trust given the rising need for having a dedicated national fund. The primary objective of the fund was to deal with any kind of emergency or distress situations in the nation like the COVID-19 pandemic and for the provision of relief to the affected people.