Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) received Rs 535.44 crore as foreign donations during the last three years, show the official records.
The Receipt and Payment Accounts (Audited) of the PM CARES Fund, which was set up in 2020 in wake of Covid-19 pandemic, shows that the value of foreign contributions received in the fund stood at Rs 0.40 crore during financial year 2019-20, Rs 494.92 crore in 2020-21, and Rs 40.12 crore in 2021-22.
The records show that the PM CARES Fund received Rs 24.85 crore as interest income from its foreign contribution account in three financial years from 2019-20 to 2021-22.
It shows that foreign contributions to the PM CARES Fund peaked during 2020-21, the financial year that witnessed the outbreak of the pandemic, but it plummeted in the following fiscal year, which saw havoc wrecked by the deadly second wave of Covid-19.
Like the fall in foreign contribution, voluntary contributions too declined to Rs 1,896.76 crore during 2021-22 from Rs 7,183.77 crore during 2020-21.
The voluntary contribution stood at Rs 3,075.85 crore during 2019-20.