PM CARES received Rs 3.076 crore in five days from India, overseas

New Delhi: The PM CARES Fund was started with an initial corpus of Rs 2.25 lakh and received more than Rs 3.076 million in contributions from India and abroad during the first five days of its creation. This has been disclosed by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in PM CARES ‘first audited’ receipt and payment account ‘for the 2019-20 financial year. It has been audited by the public accountants firm SARC & Associates and signed by four officials of the PMO on behalf of the fund, which was created on March 27.

Who contributed to the initial corpus has not been specified. The fund’s first trustees are Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Interior Minister Amit Shah, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, all acting in an ex officio capacity. The PM who is the president can appoint three more trustees. The audited statement mentions notes attached to the financial statement, relating to national and foreign contributions, but they have not been made public. The names of the contributors are also not in the public domain. The accompanying notes and names of contributors are also not made public with respect to the PM National Relief Fund (PMNRF) in the audited statements.

The PM CARES Fund account statement mentions that the core fund of Rs 3,075.85 was received as voluntary contributions and Rs 39.67 lakh as foreign contributions until March 31st. The fund earned an interest of Rs 35.32 lakh on these amounts. The statement mentions that the fund paid Rs 2,049 as service tax on the Forex conversion and had a closing balance of Rs 3,076.62 crore as of March 31. On May 13, Rs 3,100 crore was allocated from the PM CARES Fund for the supply of 50,000 ‘Made in India ventilators to government hospitals for migrant workers and for the development of vaccines. Earlier this month, the PMO had said that money had also been allocated to establish two 500-bed Covid-19 hospitals in Bihar.