The PM-CARES Muddle
Amid all the negativity, uncertainty and horrifying news coming from across the world about the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, it was great to see people from all walks of life contributing generously to the PM CARES Fund on the call of PM Narendra Modi.
Keeping in mind the need for having a dedicated national fund with the primary objective of dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation, like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to provide relief to the affected, the PM CARES Fund was set up.
The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assisted and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund, created on March 28 this year amidst the pandemic calls itself a public charitable trust. The Prime Minister is the ex-officio chairman of this fund and the Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister of the Govt. of India are the ex-officio trustees of the PM CARES Fund. Donations made to this fund are completely exempted from the Income Tax and are recorded as contributions under Corporate Social Responsibility.
Early Troubles
Since the day it was set up, this fund has caused controversy due to lack of transparency. Harsha Kandukuri ,an LLM student in Bangalore, advocate Samyak Gangwal and several others filed separate RTI applications seeking various details about the PM CARES to which the PMO responded that the fund is not a public authority, as per Section 2[h] of the RTI Act,2005.
People also raised questions about the utility of the fund. However, amid the growing controversy, Delhi based firm SARC & Associates has been appointed as the independent auditor of the PM CARES Fund for the next three years. It is also worth mentioning that the same firm was appointed for the audit of the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) in 2019.
The fund is administered on an honorary basis by a Joint Secretary in the PMO who is Secretary to the PM CARES Fund and is assisted on an honorary basis by an officer rank of Director/Deputy Secretary (administration) in the PMO.
Many eyebrows were also raised when the Finance Ministry issued a circular that stated its employees to contribute a day’s salary every month to the PM CARES Fund till March 2021,the employees who had objection to it had to intimate the Drawing and Disbursing Officer in writing along with their employee code by April 20,2020.
The Defence Ministry also approved a proposal for its employees including those serving in the Army ,Navy and Air Force to contribute a day’s salary to the PM CARES Fund but it was added that the employees’ contribution will be voluntary and those who do not want to contribute shall be exempted from this. Many other departments of the central government also issued similar circulars for their employees. Now it becomes all the more important to mention here that several state governments also issued circulars or orders for their employees to contribute to the CM Relief Fund.
Huge contributions to the PM CARES Fund were also made by Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) including steel PSUs like SAIL, RINL among others. Now this needs to be highlighted here that the PM CARES Fund accepts contributions from the PSUs and this was the question that was raised by many people. The money that has been contributed by the PSUs apart from that contributed by the salary of their employees comes from the taxpayers’ pockets and taxpayers have every right to know where their money is flowing.
PMNRF vs PM-CARES
Comparisons were also made between the PM-CARES Fund and the PMNRF. The Prime Minister National Relief Fund(PMNRF) was established by the former PM Jawaharlal Nehru in the year 1948 primarily to collect public donations in order to provide relief to the people who came to India from Pakistan after the partition. Later this fund was also used for providing relief to those affected by wars, riots and natural calamities.
The two funds share similarities as well as dissimilarities. The similarities shared by the two funds include:
- Exemption from the income tax,
- No budgetary support (Union Govt Budget) and
- Honorary service of the people involved in the functioning of the two trusts.
Coming to the dissimilarities between the two funds,
- When it comes to the PMNRF the Prime minister is the wholly and solely responsible for the fund i.e. the disbursement of the money and selection of beneficiaries depends on the discretion of the PM only while in case of the PM CARES Fund this power is equally shared by the Home Minister, Defence Minister and the Finance Minister other than the Prime Minister. Therefore it can be said that the PM CARES is more democratic than the PMNRF.
- Another dissimilarity between the two funds is that the PMNRF does not accept contributions from the PSUs but the PM CARES Fund does so. The minimum amount that can be contributed to the PMNRF is ₹100 but in case of the PM CARES Fund, it is ₹10.
Utility of PM-CARES
Now coming to the real issue, how and in what ways is the PM CARES Fund helping India in battling against the COVID-19 pandemic and providing relief to those affected by it. A sum of ₹2000 crore has been allocated by the PM CARES Fund Trust for supplying 50,000 Made-in-India ventilators to the COVID-19 dedicated hospitals run by governments of the states and union territories.
The Indian companies involved in the manufacturing of these ventilators include companies like the Bharat Electronics Limited, the AgVa Healthcare and the AMTZ Basic. Out of the 2923 ventilators manufactured, 1340 have been delivered to the states and union territories. Leaders of the BJP including Union Ministers Anurag Thakur and Jayant Sinha have shared pictures of the ventilators manufactured from the money allocated by the PM CARES on various social media platforms stating that in the last 70 years India could only arrange some 47,000 ventilators but with the PM CARES Fund the BJP government will give India 50,000 ventilators and that too Made-in-India.
Following table shows the number of ventilators delivered to various states and union territories among others.
Apart from this a sum of ₹1000 crore has been allocated for the welfare of the migrant labourers and ₹100 crore for developing vaccine against the deadly COVID-19 virus. Adding all this, as of now, ₹3100 crore has been allocated by the PM CARES Fund for battling the Coronavirus pandemic.
Final Thoughts
It is obvious that in a democracy, governments face criticism on various issues and the citizens including those who are members of the opposition parties have every right to question the government but in difficult times like these when the country is battling at different fronts be it the Coronavirus pandemic, India-China standoff in eastern Ladakh, Pakistan sponsored terrorism in Kashmir and many other internal disturbances, let’s be patient.
We need to support our government. Once all this is over we can question the government and debate on every single issue including the ‘controversial’ PM CARES Fund. Meanwhile, let’s wait till this financial year ends and audit of the PM CARES is done. The judiciary is also playing its part in case of the PM CARES Fund. Let’s hope that the PM CARES Fund serves the purpose for which it has been established and the money reaches to those who need it.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions or views of the National Youth Express or its members.
