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PM Cares Fund received Rs 3,076 Cr within first 5 days of Launch; Why no names, asks Chidambaram

2nd-September-2020

In the first audit report of the PM CARES fund, the Prime Minister's office (PMO) has stated that it received over Rs 3,076 crores as contributions from India and abroad within the first five days of its launch. The statement has recorded donations between March 27 and 31.

The fund was setup with an initial corpus of Rs 2.25 lakhs. The �receipts and payments account� of PM Cares stated that Rs 3,075.85 crore came from domestic voluntary contribution and Rs 39.67 lakh was foreign contribution. It has also received interest of around Rs 35 lakhs.

The statement mentioned that the fund paid Rs 2,049 as service tax on Forex conversion and had a closing balance of Rs 3,076.62 crores as on March 31.

The Audit statements have not been made public. Therefore, the names of donors have not been revealed.

In a series of tweets, former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram questioned why the names of "these generous donors" were not revealed.

"Why? Every other NGO or Trust is obliged to reveal the names of donors contributing more than a threshold amount. Why is the PM CARES FUND exempt from this obligation," said his tweet.