Exclusive: Rs 13,000 crore received by PM-CARES Fund till March, 60% spent on the fight against Covid-19
PM Cares Fund: After the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, the government established the PM Cares Fund to deal with any kind of emergency or distress situation arising out of it. During the year 2019-20, Rs 3976 crore was collected in this fund, which increased to Rs 10,990 crore in 2020-21.
New Delhi. The PM-CARES Fund had received over Rs 13,000 crore till the end of March this year and about Rs, 5,400 crores was left till that date, with the rest being spent on various measures in the fight against Covid. After the outbreak of the Kovid-19 epidemic, the government established the PM Cares Fund to deal with any kind of emergency or distress situation arising out of it.
Shakti Knowledge Blog has reviewed the audit statement of the PM-CARES Fund for 2021-22, which shows that over Rs 13,000 crore has been collected in the two years since the fund’s inception in March 2020. According to the latest statement of PM-CARES Fund, about 60% of this amount – around Rs 7,700 crore – has been spent till March this year on various items like setting up medical oxygen plants, providing ventilators to government hospitals, and setting up temporary hospitals.
Drop in PM-Cares fund
The contribution received in 2021-22 saw a significant decline as compared to the previous financial year when the pandemic was spreading in the country. While the PM-Cares Fund received Rs 7,183 crore from within the country and Rs 495 crore from abroad in 2020-21, in the last financial year it received Rs 1,897 crore from within the country and only Rs 41 crore from abroad. In March 2020, the initial amount of Rs 2.25 lakh was contributed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from his personal earnings to the PM-CARES Fund.
Rs 395 crore received from interest
The statement reveals that the PM-CARES Fund earned Rs 160 crore in the last financial year as interest income from the amount that was in the corpus. Even in 2020-21, the PM-CARES Fund had Rs 235 crore as interest income. This shows that out of Rs 13,054 crore coming to the PM-Cares Fund till last March, Rs 395 crore came from the account of interest income.
Where how much did it cost
A total of Rs 835 crore was spent from the fund in the last financial year on providing 50,000 ‘Made in India’ ventilators to government hospitals, while Rs 1703 crore was spent on setting up additional dedicated Pressure Swing Absorption (PSA) medical oxygen generation plants in the country were done. The audit statement shows that around Rs 500 crore was spent on the purchase of 99,986 oxygen concentrators, while Rs 322 crore was spent on the purchase of 1.5 lakh SpO2-based oxygen control systems. One thousand crore rupees were spent from this fund on migrant laborers, while Rs 1,392 crore was given for making vaccines.
PM Cares Fund Board of Trustees
Recently, former Supreme Court Justice KT Thomas, former Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Kariya Munda, and Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata have been included as members of the newly constituted Board of Trustees of the ‘PM Cares Fund’.
