Abdul Bari Masoud studies the controversy around the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund), which the Fund’s detractors believe lacks transparency and faces the allegations of questionable donation and spending patterns. While the Narendra Modi administration claims that it is a useful tool for providing Covid relief. Recent controversy surrounding the Fund has been triggered by contributions made by publicly traded government-run companies.
The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund, also known as PM CARES Fund, has been in the thick ofcontroversy since its launch in March 2020. The Fund’s detractors contend that it lacks transparency, despite the Narendra Modi regime claims that it is a useful tool for providing Covid relief. Other issues include questionable donation and spending patterns. There is just a limited amount of publicly accessible data on the fund and its management. There are many warning signs.
Recent controversy surrounding the Fund has been triggered by contributions made by publicly traded government-run companies.
According to media reports,government-run listed firms have contributed at least `2,913.6 crore between 2019-20 and 2021-22 to the Fund.
Latching on to the latest revelations, the opposition attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his PM CARES Fund, branding it a “fraud and a farce”.
The government claims that it (the fund) does not receive budgetary support in an effort to obtain exemption from investigation. What else do Navratnas and mini-Navratnas contribute in such substantial amounts?
Main opposition party Congress asserted that the money donated by public companies is taxpayers’ money and constitutional morality doesn’t require legal compulsion.
Congress MP and senior spokesperson Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the controversies around the PM CARES fund prove that it has been set up by a highly “uncaring” government, by a highly “uncaring” ruling party and Prime Minister. “PM Cares starts with a capital ‘C’ which unfortunately appears to signify coercion, chaos, confusion, corruption by the powers that be.”
Talking to reporters at the party headquarters, Dr Singhvi asked:“What prevents the Prime Minister from making the details public – receipts and expenditure?”
According to an analysis by the English daily Business Standard, of the data collated by tracker primeinfobase.com for all the companies listed on the National Stock Exchange, 59.3% of the overall gift of `4,910.5 crore was given by government-run businesses, which is higher than the combined donation of 247 other businesses. The top donors are Indian Oil Corporation (`265 crore), Power Finance Corporation (`222.4 crore), Power Grid Corporation of India (`275 crore), and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (`370 crore).
For the calculations, the research identified 57 businesses in which the government held a sizable stake.
Since its creation in March 2020, the PM Cares Fund has been in the centre of controversy due to its avoidance of public scrutiny and receipt of funding from foreign organisations, especially Chinese businesses. According to a report that the Union government submitted to the Delhi High Court in January 2023, the fund is not in the jurisdiction of the Government of India. This reaffirmed the Supreme Court’s ruling from 2020, which stated that the trust does not receive any funding from the government.
According to information on its website, the PM Cares Fund collected `3,076.6 crore in 2019–20, which increased to `10,990.2 crore in 2020–21 and decreased to `9,131.9 crore in 2021–22. In its initial year, the majority of the funding appears to have come from corporate India’s CSR spending.
In the few days it was in existence in 2019–20, the PM Cares Fund only spent `2,049 crore. In 2020–21 and 2021–22, this climbed to `3,976.2 crore and `3,716.3 crore, respectively.
The government-amended new regulations that took effect in September 2022, according to the analysis, provide inspection of CSR spending more relevance. These modified standards place restrictions on how much information businesses must disclose in their yearly reporting on CSR expenditures.
Because of its nature and the lack of transparency around it, PM Cares Fund status has generated controversy. The Right to Information Act of 2005 does not apply to the PM Cares Fund since it is not a “public authority” under Article 12 of the Indian Constitution. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) told the Delhi High Court of this earlier this year in January.
From the beginning, opposition parties have been demanding transparency and scrutiny of the fund while the government has insisted that it’s not a public fund.The Fund has been shrouded in secrecy.
Even without legal compulsion, Congress spokesperson Dr.Singhvi said the government on its own should have made 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 added.
For a 2-year or 3-year period from 2019-2022, these such companies contributed just under `3,000 crore. In percentage terms, it is very interesting. The number of companies which contributed, maybe more than 250 or 300, but, the total percentage of contribution by those 250 or 300 companies was less than 40 per cent, 60 percent of the contribution or just fewer than 60 per cent was from these government companies. These top donors include the well-known names ONGC, NTPC, Powergrid Corporation, Indian Oil Corporation, Power Finance Corporation and there are other companies, where the government has a significant ownership and control.
It is to recall that the PM announced the PM Cares Fund on March 27, 2020, just a few days after India went into a statewide lockdown to curb the coronavirus spread. A day later, he urged “all Indians” to donate.
PM Modi tweeted, “It is my appeal to my fellow Indians, kindly contribute to the PM-Cares Fund,” pleading with them to do so in order to support India’s fight against COVID-19 and “similar distressing situations” in the future.This will significantly contribute to making India healthy, he wrote.
Within a week, donations poured in from businessmen, celebrities, companies, and ordinary citizens.
The government’s secrecy is being questioned by opposition politicians, independent activists, and journalists at the moment.
They also questioned the need for a new fund given that the country already has one of its kind – the PM National Relief Fund, or PMNRF – in place since 1948.
Questioning the opacity behind the PM Fund, noted public interest lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan said there must be transparency and accountability in the PM Fund as public money was taken from PSUs.
“And what about the 2913 Crs that have been taken from PSUs for the ‘PM Cares fund’, which the PMO calls a private trust & not a public authority! No transparency & accountability for this public money taken from PSUs?” he tweeted.
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 the Modi Government.”
More transparency has been sought in petitions submitted under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and in court. Insisting that PM Cares is not a “public authority,” which implies it is neither controlled or substantially supported by the government and does not thus fall under the RTI Act, the fund has so far managed to dodge any public scrutiny. It also means that government auditors cannot examine it.
A law student named Kandukuri Sri Harsh said that it is ludicrous to claim that the PM Cares is not a public authority. Kandukuri was one of the first to apply for information through an RTI application seeking records pertaining to the trust’s formation and management.
“Millions of people passed up the fund because they believed it to be a private trust. The prime minister’s reputation has been used to collect the money,” he said.
Everything is veiled in secrecy. Sadly, a division bench of the High Court – known as a two-judge bench – took up the case, and one of the experienced judges, Justice Ravindra Bhat, who is now on the Supreme Court, decided that this fund is subject to RTI.The matter is pending in the Supreme Court.
When Dr Singhvi was asked if the Congress believes that money collected by the Fund is being used for political purposes,he quipped:“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).”
There are no answers to any of these queries on the PM Cares website, and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), which is managing the fund, has refused to provide any information.