Congress raises questions over PM CARES Fund, asks about ‘lack of transparency’

PTI, Mar 18, 2024, 6:47 PM IST

New Delhi: The Congress on Monday raised questions about the PM CARES Fund, saying that four years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still not clear why it was set up, who its donors are and why its administrative structure is so “lacking in transparency”.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh alleged that given the history of the Modi government, as shown by the “electoral bond scam”, one can only speculate that the lack of transparency was deliberately engineered to give the prime minister an unsupervised pool of funds to spend as he wishes.

In a post on X, Ramesh said, “Now that the corruption, extortion and intimidation of the Modi Sarkar through the electoral bond scam is getting revealed in all its shocking detail, let us not forget another route the Government opened for companies to curry favour: the self-glorifyingly named PMCARES.”

“The total amount of funds PMCARES received and the names of the donors have never been officially reported. Media reports suggest that it received donations to the tune of Rs 12,700 crore at least, with large donations from a few corporations,” he claimed.

Some prominent donors who publicly pledged to donate to the fund include the Reliance Group (Rs 500 crore), Adani Group (Rs 100 crore), PayTM (Rs 500 crore), JSW Group (Rs 100 crore) and others, the Congress leader said.

“PMCARES is exempt from CAG and RTI oversight — allegedly, because it did not receive budgetary support from the government.

However, it is well known that at least 38 PSUs, owned and operated by the government, have donated vast sums to the tune of Rs 2,105 crore to the PMCARES fund. An additional 150 crores came from PSU employee contributions,” Ramesh said.

Moreover, the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) received several special exemptions from the government such as donations received 100 per cent tax deduction under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act relating to charities.

“Foreign donations were allowed under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act. Donations were made eligible to be treated as Corporate Social Responsibility expenditure under the Companies Act. This privilege is not extended even to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund in States,” he said.

“Suspiciously, quite a few China-based or Chinese-owned firms have donated to the PMCARES Fund. TikTok claimed to have donated Rs 30 crore, Xiaomi donated Rs 10 crore, Huawei up to Rs 7 crore and OnePlus reportedly donated Rs 1 crore,” he claimed.

At a time when China is encroaching on Indian territory in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh, donations were sought and accepted from these firms, he said.

“Four years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still not clear why the PM CARES fund was set up, how much it received and from whom, how the funds were disbursed, and why its administrative structure is so lacking in transparency,” Ramesh said.

“Given the history of the Modi Sarkar, as shown by the electoral bond scam, one can only speculate that the lack of transparency was deliberately engineered to give the Prime Minister an unsupervised pool of funds to spend as he wishes. For corporations, it was a new, tax-exempt, CSR-saving way of currying favour with the Prime Minister — possibly to seek government contracts and licenses in the future, or to avoid the intimidation of ED-IT raids,” Ramesh alleged.

Like with the electoral bond scam, PM CARES Fund is a scandal waiting to emerge, he alleged.