PM CARES: What is there to hide?

A letter recently written to the Rajya Sabha Chairman and the Lok Sabha Speaker by CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Dr. John Brittas, regarding answers in Parliament on the PM CARES Fund, has once again ignited discussion. The issue returned to public attention following reports that the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) issued a directive stating that information regarding three funds — the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES), the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF), and the National Defence Fund (NDF) — should be withheld from Members of Parliament and, which by extension, implies the public too. The directive reportedly instructed that questions concerning these funds should not be permitted in Parliament. According to a report published in The Indian Express on February 9, the PMO sent a letter to the Lok Sabha Secretariat on January 30. The letter reportedly stated - PMO and Lok Sabha Secretariat have declined comment -- that questions related to the aforementioned funds cannot be raised under the sub-clauses of Clause 41 of the Lok Sabha Rules of Procedure and should therefore be rejected.

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Brittas’s demand was that the presiding officers of the Houses should reject the government’s directives to dismiss questions about funds such as PM CARES and instead uphold Parliament’s right to know. For reasons that remain unclear, the Central Government does not recognise the right of people’s representatives to access any information regarding such funds. The Modi government’s position is that these funds do not fall under the Consolidated Fund of India like other treasury money, are not managed by government departments or Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), and are therefore not subject to the same auditing processes as government expenditure. However, all other available facts suggest that this reasoning is merely a tactic to keep the income and expenditure of these funds opaque. A memo issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on March 28, 2020, explicitly states that contributions to the PM CARES Fund qualify as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure because the fund was established by the Central Government itself for public relief. The Centre’s position implies that the government exercises direct control over the fund while simultaneously claiming it cannot be subjected to audit. This is why the government seeks the freedom to maintain the fund as a channel for corporate donations — similar to the Electoral Bonds controversy— and to spend the money as the administration sees fit, without oversight. It is the Modi government, which often boasts of transparency, that is now issuing edicts declaring that transactions worth billions — created by it and directly supervised by government ministers and officials — cannot even be questioned in Parliament. Although the websites of these funds publish some summary data, no information is available beyond the total amounts collected and spent each financial year. It remains unclear who the donors or who the beneficiaries of the aid are.

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The website clearly states that PM CARES is a trust registered in 2020 during the COVID-19 period, and its objectives are listed. The Prime Minister serves as the ex-officio Chairperson, while the Ministers of Home Affairs, Defence, and Finance are ex-officio members. In addition, there are two other members nominated by the Prime Minister. Contributions to this fund receive a 100 per cent income tax exemption, similar to other government charitable funds. The fund was also granted swift approval under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA). Furthermore, the Companies Act, 2013, was specifically amended to make the PM CARES Fund eligible for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contributions from companies. Thus, this system was established by the Central Government in accordance with laws passed by Parliament. The Central Government is adamantly insisting on not being transparent in relation to an institution that is managed by individuals including the Prime Minister, bears the address of the Prime Minister’s Office, and is administered by Secretaries or Additional Secretaries in the PMO as their additional responsibility. Given this insistence on withholding such information, if citizens conclude that there is something to hide, can they be blamed? Either a satisfactory answer must be provided to this question, or the Central Government must allow transparency in PM CARES data.