PM CARES Fund Corpus Rises To ₹8,452 Crore; Spending Falls To ₹87.85 Lakh

The PM CARES Fund’s corpus rose to a record Rs 8,452.07 crore as of March 31, 2025, according to its latest audited receipts and payments accounts. The accounts for 2023-24 and 2024-25 were made public on the fund’s website around August 17, 2026.

The corpus stood at around Rs 7,173 crore at the end of 2023-24, marking an increase of nearly Rs 1,279 crore.

Nearly 93% Of Corpus In Fixed Deposits

According to the latest accounts, around Rs 7,846.65 crore, or nearly 93% of the total corpus, was held in fixed deposits with scheduled banks. Around Rs 605 crore was kept in savings accounts.

The shift towards fixed deposits has helped the fund earn significant interest, which has now become one of its major sources of income.

Donations Decline

Domestic voluntary donations fell to around Rs 479 crore in 2024-25 from nearly Rs 682 crore in the previous financial year, a decline of about 30%.

Foreign donations also declined, falling from around Rs 1.13-1.14 crore in 2023-24 to less than Rs 1 crore during 2024-25.

Despite the fall in donations, the fund’s balance increased due to interest income and refunds received from implementing agencies.

Interest Becomes Major Source Of Income

The fund earned around Rs 469-475 crore in interest from fixed deposits during the financial year. It also earned approximately Rs 5.77 crore from savings accounts.

Around Rs 325 crore was received as refunds from implementing agencies.

Together, donations, interest and refunds contributed more than Rs 1,200 crore to the fund during the year, helping push the corpus to its highest level so far.

Expenditure Falls Sharply

The latest accounts show that the PM CARES Fund spent only Rs 87.85 lakh during 2024-25.

Nearly the entire amount went towards the PM CARES for Children Scheme, while a small amount was spent on bank and SMS charges.

The expenditure was significantly lower than the approximately Rs 15.6 crore spent in 2023-24.

Most Spending Took Place During COVID Period

The PM CARES Fund was established in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide assistance during emergencies and distress situations.

According to figures reported by Deccan Herald, the fund has received around Rs 14,767 crore in cumulative donations since its creation, while total expenditure stood at approximately Rs 8,133 crore up to 2024-25.

A large portion of the spending took place during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis, including expenditure on emergency medical infrastructure and related relief measures.

Transparency Debate Continues

The latest figures are also likely to bring back questions about transparency and utilisation of the fund.

Many netizens on internet have raised concerns over the large corpus, delayed publication of accounts and the absence of detailed public information on individual donors and expenditure.

Questions have also been raised over the fund being outside the scope of the RTI Act and not being audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The government maintains that PM CARES is a separate public charitable trust funded through voluntary contributions and operates under the applicable rules.