The PM CARES Fund has made its financial statements for FY23-24 and FY24-25 public, with the latest disclosure raising questions about the availability of the accompanying audit report and notes, as well as a ₹324.66 crore refund received from implementing agencies. The one-page
receipts and payments account for FY2024-25 carries references to an accompanying auditor’s report and notes 1 to 16, but these are not part of the document available on the fund’s website.
The accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025 were signed by officials of the PM CARES Fund in New Delhi on 6 August 2026 and by chartered accountant Tejas Parikh, partner at Mumbai-based KKC & Associates LLP, on 7 August 2026, more than 16 months after the close of the financial year, transparency activist Commodore (cmde) Lokesh Batra (retd) points out.
He said, “So-called audit reports are signed by officials in PMO on 6 August 2026, and the auditor signed on 7 August 2026 at Mumbai. On the same dates, four audit reports were similarly signed – two of PM CARES Fund and the other two of PMNRF for FY23-24 and FY24-25.”
“My questions are: if the auditors' associates are so much experienced, why did they present/ agree for an incomplete audit, instead of as per laid down norms. So many shortcomings in the reports they signed. Were they under pressure from their client to sign the present form, as they have signed? If so, their credibility has taken a hit,” he added.
The FY23-24 accounts have also been released alongside the FY24-25 statement. The PM CARES website now lists audited receipts and payment accounts for both financial years, with FY22-23 having been the latest year for which an account was previously available on the website.
The PM CARES website’s FAQ states that no statutory period is prescribed under the Income Tax Act for auditing the fund’s accounts. It also states that the fund is audited by an independent auditor and that KKC & Associates LLP, Mumbai, has been appointed as its auditor for three years.
The FY24-25 statement shows that PM CARES ended the year with a balance of ₹8,452.07 crore, compared with ₹7,173.03 crore at the end of FY23-24. A substantial portion of the corpus was held in fixed deposits. The fund had ₹7,846.65 crore in fixed deposits with scheduled banks and ₹605.41 crore in savings bank accounts as of 31 March 2025.
The fund received ₹479.05 crore in domestic donations during FY24-25, down from ₹681.81 crore in the previous year. Foreign donations stood at ₹92.83 lakh, compared with ₹1.13 crore in FY23-24.
Interest earned on fixed deposits amounted to ₹469.38 crore, while interest on savings bank accounts was ₹5.77 crore. The statement also records ₹324.66 crore as ‘refund from implementing agencies’, compared with ₹84.31 crore under the same head in FY2023-24.
The fund received total receipts of ₹1,279.91 crore during FY24-25, including donations, interest income, refunds from implementing agencies and refund of tax deducted at source on fixed-deposit interest. Against this, payments during the year amounted to ₹87.85 lakh. Of this, ₹87.84 lakh was spent under the PM CARES for Children Scheme and ₹451 went towards bank and SMS charges.
The fund’s closing balance consequently increased from ₹7,173.03 crore at the beginning of the year to ₹8,452.07 crore at the end of FY24-25.
The receipts and payments account carries the statement: “Accompanying notes to the financial statements - 1 to 16.” It also states: “As per our report of even date attached.”
The one-page document available on the PM CARES website, however, does not contain the accompanying notes or the auditor’s report referred to in the statement. The absence of the accompanying notes has been highlighted by transparency activists Anjali Bhardwaj and Cmde Batra.
Ms Bhardwaj has questioned why the notes referred to in the financial statement were not uploaded along with the account. She also sought details of the ₹324.66 crore refunded by implementing agencies, including which agencies returned the money and the purpose for which the original payments had been made.
The ₹324.66-crore entry in the FY24-25 statement carries a reference to note 11. The one-page statement itself does not identify the implementing agencies concerned or provide details of the transactions covered by the refund.
Cmde Batra has separately drawn attention to the absence of the accompanying notes and the auditor’s report from the documents available on the PM CARES website. He has also pointed out that the FY23-24 and FY24-25 accounts carry signatures dated 6th August and 7 August 2026.
The FY24-25 statement has been audited by KKC & Associates LLP, formerly Khimji Kunverji & Co LLP. The PM CARES website states that the trustees appointed KKC & Associates LLP as the fund’s independent auditor for three years.
The PM CARES website currently lists receipt and payment accounts marked as audited for FY19-20 through FY24-25. The latest accounts for FY23-24 and FY24-25 were signed in August 2026, while the financial year covered by the latest statement ended on 31 March 2025.
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