New Delhi: The Congress party on Tuesday lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his PM CARES Fund, calling it a “fraud and a farce”. The party was responding to reports that government-run listed firms have contributed at least Rs 2,913.6 crore between 2019-20 and 2021-22 to the Fund.
“The government seeks immunity from scrutiny by arguing that it (the fund) does not receive budgetary support. What else is the contribution of such huge amounts by Navratnas and mini-Navratnas? This is taxpayers’ money. Constitutional morality doesn’t require legal compulsion,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, according to The Telegraph. “What prevents the Prime Minister from making the details public — receipts and expenditure?”
Business Standard found that the contribution of government-run companies accounts for more than the cumulative donation made by 247 other firms to the fund – 59.3% of total donation of Rs 4,910.5 crore, reports the newspaper. The top five donors are Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (Rs 370 crore), NTPC (Rs 330 crore), Power Grid Corporation of India (Rs 275 crore), Indian Oil Corporation (Rs 265 crore), and Power Finance Corporation (Rs 222.4 crore).
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge too criticised the opacity around the Fund, tweeting, “PM Cares is equal to PM Shares public money. The Prime Minister’s Office told the Supreme Court — No Government money is credited to the Fund. In Delhi High Court, the affidavit said ‘the Fund is not State or Public Authority and RTI/CAG scrutiny can’t be applied’. An epidemic of loot during adversity by Modi Government.”
Singhvi was asked if the Congress believes that money collected by the Fund is being used for political purposed. He replied, according to The Telegraph, “How can we say that when the details of expenditure are not available? What’s the problem in putting out details on its website on a monthly basis? Or, bring out a white paper to tell the nation how the money was spent in the last four years. Instead, the government is fighting at different levels, including the courts, to block information. They don’t allow CAG scrutiny, not even RTI (Right to Information).”
The PM-CARES has been in the thick of controversy since it was set up in March 2020, because of its avoidance of public scrutiny and receipt of funds from foreign entities, including Chinese companies. The fund is not controlled by the Government of India, according to a reported submission by the Union government to the Delhi high court in January 2023. This reiterated a position mentioned in a 2020 judgment by the Supreme Court, which noted that the trust does not receive any government money.
The PM CARES Fund collected Rs 3,076.6 crore in 2019-20, according to disclosures on its website, which rose to Rs 10,990.2 crore in 2020-21 and fell to Rs 9,131.9 crore in 2021-22. The bulk of the amount seems to have come from corporate India’s CSR budgets in its first year.
The PM CARES Fund spent only Rs 2,049 crore in the few days it was operational in 2019-20. This increased to Rs 3,976.2 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 3,716.3 crore in 2021-22.
The status of PM CARES has been controversial for its nature and the lack of transparency around it. Earlier this year, in January, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) told the Delhi high court that the PM CARES Fund is not a “public authority” under Article 12 of the Constitution of India and so is not answerable to the public about its functioning under the Right to Information Act, 2005.
Even without legal compulsion, Singhvi said, the government on its own should be making details of the Fund public. “The disclosure should be made on the sacred principles of transparency and accountability. What’s the problem in transforming the fund into a statutory fund? What’s there to hide that the government is ensuring zero accountability, zero audit, zero transparency? What are the criteria for the deployment of the fund? Who are the beneficiaries?” he continued.