The PM-CARES fund for Coronavirus pandemic is generally described as a government trust for corporate donations. But as per the reports by NDTV, it says a clause in the trust documents calls it a private entity, which leaves it clear from RTI scrutiny.
The PM-CARES trust has been registered with the revenue department of Delhi, with the Prime Minister as chairperson and senior ministers as trustees. However, recently the trust deed made public that funds are no more under government control.
Point 5.3 of the Trust Deed says: "The trust is neither intended to be nor is owned, controlled or substantially financed by any government or any instrumentality of the government. There is no control of either the central government or any state governments, either direct or indirect, in the functioning of the trust in any manner whatsoever."
PM-CARES or the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund was created by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March to deal with any emergency or disastrous circumstances like the coronavirus pandemic.
On March 27 the trust was registered and on March 28, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs issued an official memorandum qualifying PM-CARES as corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to receive corporate donations.
The Companies Act defines eligibility for corporate donations as: "Contribution to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund or any other fund set up by the Central Government or the State Governments for socio-economic development and relief and funds for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women."
Activist Anjali Bhardwaj after accessing the documents through an RTI query exposes that the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, while publishing the March 28 Office Memorandum, described PM-CARES as a "fund set up by the central government". Though the trust deed from the day of its registration has said that PM-Cares was not a government-run trust, thus it doesn’t fulfil the criteria of corporate donations.
So, the contradiction continues on the PM Cares fund, while several opposition parties have time and again questioned the working of the trust. Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his tweet of August 20 asked, "If the Fund is a private established fund, why are donations to the fund counted against CSR?"
Meanwhile, as per an account statement that was made public by the trust in September, showed that the PM CARES Fund had received Rs 3,076.62 crore in just five days of its creation. The ‘receipt and payment account’ had shown nearly Rs 3,075.85 crore as ‘voluntary contributions’, while Rs 39.67 lakh came as foreign contributions.