PM CARES Fund Audited Statements Unavailable After FY 2022-23, Raising Fresh Transparency Questions

New Delhi: The availability of audited financial information from the PM CARES Fund has again raised questions about financial transparency, with publicly available records indicating that audited financial statements after the financial year 2022-23 are not currently available in the public domain in the same manner as the earlier accounts.

The issue is significant because the PM CARES Fund was established in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide relief and assistance during public health emergencies, disasters and other crises. The fund accepts voluntary contributions from individuals and organisations, while certain contributions from companies and public sector undertakings (PSUs) qualify as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure.

The fund’s official website describes PM CARES as a Public Charitable Trust. Its trust deed was registered in New Delhi on March 27, 2020. The fund’s stated objectives include providing relief and assistance during public health emergencies and other emergency situations, disasters and crises, including support for healthcare and pharmaceutical facilities, essential infrastructure, related research and financial assistance to affected populations.

What is the issue with PM CARES Fund financial statements?

The central issue is not whether PM CARES Fund is audited. Its official FAQ states that the fund is audited by an independent auditor. The question is instead about the public availability of the latest audited financial statements.

According to the available public record supplied for this report, FY 2022-23 is the latest financial year for which audited accounts are publicly available. Audited financial statements for FY 2023-24, FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 do not appear to be publicly available on the fund’s website in the same manner.

This distinction is important. The absence of audited statements from a public website does not establish that an audit was not conducted. The PM CARES Fund’s official FAQ says that the fund is audited by an independent auditor and that the audit is carried out at the end of the financial year.

It also states that there is no prescribed statutory deadline under the Income Tax Act for the audit of PM CARES Fund, although the audit is to be undertaken at the end of the financial year.

What did PM CARES Fund receive in FY 2022-23?

The last publicly available audited accounts provide a useful reference point for understanding the scale of the fund’s finances before the current disclosure gap.

For FY 2022-23, PM CARES Fund received total contributions of approximately ₹912.21 crore. This comprised around ₹909.64 crore in voluntary domestic contributions and approximately ₹2.57 crore in foreign contributions.

At the end of the financial year on March 31, 2023, the fund’s closing balance stood at approximately ₹6,284 crore. That was around 16% higher than the approximately ₹5,416 crore closing balance recorded for FY 2021-22.

The distinction between these figures is important. The ₹6,284 crore figure represents the fund’s closing balance at a particular point in time, not the amount of donations received during FY 2022-23. The approximately ₹912.21 crore figure, by contrast, represents contributions received during that financial year.

Why the post-FY 2022-23 gap matters

Audited financial statements can provide a broader picture of an organisation’s finances by showing receipts, payments, assets, liabilities and related financial disclosures. Notes accompanying financial statements can also provide additional information about the nature of income, expenditure and other financial positions.

For a large relief fund that receives contributions from individuals, organisations and eligible corporate sources, the public availability of such information allows citizens, researchers and journalists to assess its financial position more independently.

The issue therefore concerns the availability of the latest audited financial information, rather than being evidence of any financial irregularity by itself.

The available record does not establish that the absence of publicly accessible audited statements after FY 2022-23 means that the accounts were not prepared or audited. Any such conclusion would require separate documentary evidence.

PM CARES Fund’s stated purpose

According to the official PM CARES Fund website, the primary purpose of the fund is to provide relief and assistance related to public health emergencies and other emergency situations, disasters and crises.

Its stated objectives include establishing or upgrading health and pharmaceutical facilities, creating essential infrastructure, supporting relevant research and providing financial assistance to affected populations.

The fund was established in March 2020 during the COVID-19 crisis, when it was intended to support emergency response and assistance for people affected by the pandemic and other emergencies.

Who administers PM CARES Fund?

The administration of PM CARES Fund is connected with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). According to the fund’s official FAQ, the Additional Secretary or Joint Secretary in the PMO handling PM CARES Fund work is assigned responsibility as the fund’s Secretary on an honorary basis.

The PMO also provides administrative and secretarial assistance to the trustees.

The fund’s trustees include India’s Prime Minister as the ex-officio Chairperson, while the Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister serve as ex-officio Trustees.

The Prime Minister has also nominated retired Justice K.T. Thomas and Kariya Munda to the Board of Trustees.

The Advisory Board includes Rajiv Mehrishi, Sudha Murty and Anand Shah.

Who audits PM CARES Fund?

PM CARES Fund’s official FAQ says that the fund is audited by an independent auditor.

At the second meeting of the trustees held on April 23, 2020, the trustees decided to appoint Delhi-based chartered accountancy firm SARC & Associates as the auditor of PM CARES Fund for a period of three years.

The fund’s FAQ also states that the Income Tax Act does not prescribe a statutory deadline for the audit of PM CARES Fund. At the same time, it says that the audit is carried out at the end of the financial year.

Therefore, describing the fund as having “no audit” would be inaccurate based on the supplied official information. The more precise issue is the public availability of later audited statements.

Why is there a debate over a CAG audit?

Another longstanding part of the PM CARES transparency debate concerns whether the fund should be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG).

The issue has been linked to the fund’s legal status and the nature of the contributions it receives. In proceedings before the Supreme Court, PM CARES Fund was considered in the context of its status as a public charitable trust receiving voluntary contributions from individuals and organisations.

The Supreme Court did not accept the demand that PM CARES Fund’s money be transferred to the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). The fund was treated as a separate public charitable trust rather than as a conventional government budgetary fund.

In the same legal context, the court did not require PM CARES Fund to be audited by the CAG and accepted the position that its accounts could be audited by a private or independent auditor.

This legal position is central to the continuing debate. The question of CAG oversight is separate from whether PM CARES Fund undergoes an audit at all.

How PM CARES Fund receives contributions

The official information says that PM CARES Fund accepts voluntary contributions from individuals and organisations.

Contributions from companies and PSUs can qualify as CSR expenditure under the Companies Act, 2013. The fund’s official FAQ states that contributions made by a company or PSU to PM CARES Fund qualify as CSR expenditure under the law.

However, contributions from PSUs sourced from their budgetary funds are not accepted, according to the supplied official information.

This means the fund’s financial picture is not limited to individual donations. Eligible corporate and CSR contributions are also part of the fund’s receipts.

PM CARES Fund can receive foreign contributions

PM CARES Fund also accepts foreign contributions.

According to its official FAQ, the fund has been exempted from the operation of all provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA). This allows contributions from foreign individuals and organisations to be accepted.

The FY 2022-23 accounts show approximately ₹2.57 crore in foreign contributions, alongside approximately ₹909.64 crore in voluntary domestic contributions.

Because the fund can receive both domestic and foreign contributions, the public availability of financial information becomes an important part of understanding its overall financial position.

What financial information does the official website provide?

The PM CARES Fund’s official FAQ directs users to its Receipt and Payment Accounts for information on the amount received through domestic and foreign donations and the amount sanctioned from the fund.

However, a Receipt and Payment Account should not automatically be treated as identical to a complete set of audited financial statements.

Receipt and Payment Accounts primarily provide information about money received and payments made during a period. Audited financial statements can provide a broader view of financial position and may contain additional notes and disclosures relating to assets, liabilities and other financial matters.

That distinction is important when assessing the public availability of the fund’s latest financial information.

PM CARES and the RTI transparency debate

The debate over transparency has not been limited to audited financial statements. The disclosure of information related to PM CARES Fund has also been contested under the Right to Information Act.

Legal proceedings have examined whether and to what extent PM CARES Fund falls within the framework of the RTI Act and whether information concerning the fund should be disclosed under that law.

In January 2026, proceedings before the Delhi High Court raised another aspect of the issue. According to a LiveLaw report on the hearing, a division bench comprising Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia made an oral observation concerning the privacy rights of PM CARES Fund.

The bench considered the question of whether, even if the fund were regarded as the State or a public authority, that status would automatically eliminate its right to privacy.

It is important to distinguish an oral observation during a hearing from a final judicial judgment. The January 2026 observation should therefore not be presented as a final ruling on the issue.

PM CARES legal status remains central to transparency debate

The fund’s official website describes PM CARES as a Public Charitable Trust, with its trust deed registered under the Registration Act, 1908, in New Delhi on March 27, 2020.

At the same time, its administration involves officials associated with the PMO, which provides administrative and secretarial support to the trustees.

This combination of a public-facing relief purpose, contributions from individuals and organisations, corporate CSR eligibility, foreign contributions and an administrative structure linked to the PMO has contributed to continuing public debate about transparency and accountability.

However, its legal classification should not be blurred with that of the government’s Consolidated Fund or an ordinary budgetary government fund. The supplied Supreme Court context treats PM CARES as a separate public charitable trust.

What the FY 2022-23 accounts tell us

The FY 2022-23 audited accounts provide the clearest publicly available snapshot of the fund’s financial position before the later public disclosure gap.

During that financial year, PM CARES received approximately ₹912.21 crore in total contributions. Of this, around ₹909.64 crore came through voluntary domestic contributions and about ₹2.57 crore came from foreign contributions.

By March 31, 2023, the fund’s closing balance was approximately ₹6,284 crore, compared with around ₹5,416 crore at the end of FY 2021-22.

These figures should be read separately. The ₹912.21 crore amount reflects contributions received during FY 2022-23, whereas the ₹6,284 crore figure reflects the balance remaining at the end of that financial year.

What is known about the years after FY 2022-23?

A January 2025 report had noted that FY 2023-24 statements were not available on the PM CARES website at that time. A December 2024 report had described FY 2022-23 as the latest audited accounts available in the public domain at that point.

As of July 30, 2026, the available public material supplied for this report indicates that audited financial statements for FY 2023-24, FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 are not publicly available on the official website in the same manner as the FY 2022-23 accounts.

The PM CARES official website was shown as last updated on July 29, 2026 in the supplied material. Even so, the absence of later audited statements from publicly accessible website material should not be interpreted as proof that the underlying audits were not conducted.

The fund’s own FAQ says that trustees are responsible for preparing and submitting filings, accounts and returns required under applicable law. Consequently, the preparation or filing of documents under legal requirements and their publication for easy access by the general public are two separate questions.

Is the absence of public audited statements proof of financial irregularity?

No such conclusion can be drawn from the supplied information alone.

The public availability gap means that the latest financial position of PM CARES Fund cannot be independently assessed from publicly accessible audited statements with the same level of detail available for FY 2022-23.

But the absence of those documents from the public domain does not by itself establish financial irregularity, misuse of funds or corruption. Any allegation of that nature would require separate, reliable documentary evidence.

The more precise and supportable question is why the audited financial statements after FY 2022-23 are not publicly available and when they will be published.

Why regular financial disclosure matters

For a major relief fund, financial transparency generally involves more than knowing that an audit exists. Public access to financial statements can help people understand how much money was received, how much was spent and what the money was used for.

Financial notes and disclosures can provide additional context about receipts, payments, assets, liabilities and other aspects of an organisation’s financial position.

For PM CARES Fund, these questions are particularly relevant because the fund accepts voluntary contributions from individuals and organisations, eligible corporate contributions under CSR provisions and foreign contributions under its FCRA exemption.

The public availability of current audited statements therefore matters for independent assessment of the fund’s latest financial position, even though the lack of public documents should not itself be treated as evidence of wrongdoing.

PM CARES Fund: audit and public disclosure are different questions

The distinction between auditing and public disclosure of audited statements is at the heart of the current issue.

The official PM CARES FAQ says the fund is audited by an independent auditor. It identifies SARC & Associates as the firm appointed for three years at the trustees’ April 23, 2020 meeting and says the audit is conducted at the end of the financial year.

Separately, publicly accessible records indicate that FY 2022-23 is the latest year for which audited financial statements are available in the public domain in the relevant manner. The question, therefore, is not whether PM CARES has an audit mechanism, but when and how its subsequent audited financial statements will be made available to the public.

What remains to be clarified?

The immediate transparency question is whether the audited financial statements for FY 2023-24, FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 will be made publicly available and whether they will contain the same kind of financial information and detailed notes that allow readers to assess receipts, payments, assets, liabilities and other disclosures.

The official website currently provides information about the fund’s audit framework and points users to Receipt and Payment Accounts for information on donations received and amounts sanctioned. However, those materials should not automatically be treated as substitutes for complete audited financial statements.

The key issue as of July 30, 2026 is therefore the public availability of the latest audited accounts, rather than an unsupported claim that the fund has not been audited.

PM CARES Fund transparency: the position as of July 30, 2026

The available record can be summarised through several established points:

• PM CARES Fund was established in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Its trust deed was registered in New Delhi on March 27, 2020, under the Registration Act, 1908.
• The fund’s official website describes it as a Public Charitable Trust.
• Its stated purpose includes providing relief and assistance during public health emergencies, disasters and other crises.
• The fund accepts voluntary contributions from individuals and organisations.
• Eligible contributions from companies and PSUs can qualify as CSR expenditure under the Companies Act, 2013, while contributions from PSUs sourced from budgetary funds are not accepted.
• The fund accepts foreign contributions and has been exempted from the operation of all provisions of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, according to its official FAQ.
• India’s Prime Minister is the ex-officio Chairperson, while the Defence Minister, Home Minister and Finance Minister are ex-officio Trustees.
• Retired Justice K.T. Thomas and Kariya Munda have been nominated to the Board of Trustees.
• Rajiv Mehrishi, Sudha Murty and Anand Shah are listed on the Advisory Board.
• The PMO provides administrative and secretarial assistance to the trustees, with an Additional Secretary or Joint Secretary handling PM CARES work serving as Secretary on an honorary basis.
• The fund is audited by an independent auditor rather than being described as unaudited.
• SARC & Associates, a chartered accountancy firm in New Delhi, was appointed as auditor for three years at the trustees’ second meeting on April 23, 2020.
• The official FAQ says there is no statutory deadline under the Income Tax Act for the audit, although the audit is carried out at the end of the financial year.
• FY 2022-23 is the latest financial year for which audited accounts are publicly available in the supplied record.
• PM CARES received approximately ₹912.21 crore in total contributions in FY 2022-23, including around ₹909.64 crore in voluntary domestic contributions and approximately ₹2.57 crore in foreign contributions.
• The fund’s closing balance on March 31, 2023, was approximately ₹6,284 crore, compared with around ₹5,416 crore at the end of FY 2021-22.
• Publicly accessible audited financial statements for FY 2023-24, FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 are not shown as available on the official website in the same manner as the FY 2022-23 accounts.
• The official website provides Receipt and Payment Accounts, but these are distinct from complete audited financial statements.
• The Supreme Court proceedings concerning PM CARES treated it as a separate public charitable trust and did not require a CAG audit in the manner sought by petitioners.
• Transparency questions have also involved the Right to Information Act.
• In January 2026, a Delhi High Court bench comprising Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia made oral observations concerning privacy rights in proceedings related to PM CARES and RTI. Those observations should not be presented as a final judgment.
• The PM CARES official website was shown as last updated on July 29, 2026 in the supplied material.

What happens next?

The most relevant development to watch is the public release of the latest audited financial statements and accompanying financial disclosures for the years following FY 2022-23.

Such publication would allow the public to compare more recent receipts, payments and financial positions with the FY 2022-23 accounts and better understand the fund’s current financial status.

Until then, the available record supports a narrower conclusion: PM CARES Fund has an independent audit mechanism, but audited financial statements after FY 2022-23 are not currently available in the public domain in the same manner as the earlier accounts. That disclosure gap has renewed questions about financial transparency, while the available material does not by itself establish any financial irregularity.

Source: PM CARES Fund official website and FAQ; FY 2022-23 financial accounts; Supreme Court proceedings relating to PM CARES Fund; Delhi High Court proceedings as reported by LiveLaw; public records and reports cited in the supplied source material.

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