PM CARES FUND Details (Governance)

Let’s read this article on PM CARES FUND Details…

Introduction-

The Indian government has set up the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) for dealing with any kind of emergency or distress situation like the COVID-19 pandemic.

 Key Points-

  About the Fund:

• The fund is a public charitable trust with the Prime Minister as its ex-officio Chairman. Other members are ex-officio Trustees which include Home Minister, Defence Minister, and Finance Minister.
• It also includes 3 nominated trustees who are experts in the field of health, science, social work, law, etc. They are selected by Prime Minister.
• This fund is not set up by Parliament.
• There is no support given by the budget.
• It only runs from donations of ordinary people, institutions, and foreigners donations.
• The donor gets an income tax exemption.
• If a company contributes to PM-CARES Fund then it will be counted under Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR).

       [Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – CSR is mandated under the Companies Act 2013. It is applicable to both public limited and private limited companies with a very huge turnover.  Under it the companies have to contribute at least 2% of their average profit for the previous three years on philanthropic activities such as education, environment, public health, sanitation, disaster management, financial inclusion, government institutions, etc. on yearly basis.]

• Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) operates this fund.

PM CARES Controversy-

PM CARES is not a public authority under the RTI Act. Usually, critics suggest that this donation fund should be brought under the Public Account / Consolidated Fund to bring accountability and transparency. Hence controversy about how the money is used.

Similar Existing Government Donation Funds-

• Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) – This fund was initiated by then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, to assist Pak-refugees. Currently, this fund is used to compensate the victims suffered from floods, earthquakes, accidents, cancer, kidney plantation, etc. Prime minister’s Office (PMO) operates this fund.  Most of the features are similar to the PM CARES FUND.

• National Defence Fund 1962- A separate ‘National Defence Fund’ under Prime Minister to help military and paramilitary forces families. Other features are mostly similar to the above funds.

Thank you for reading this article.

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