Domestic donations to the PM CARES Fund fell nearly 30% to about ₹479 crore in FY2024-25, but the fund’s closing corpus climbed to ₹8,452.06 crore by March 31, 2025.
The latest audited accounts show a sharp divergence between fresh donations and the size of the fund: contributions declined from the pandemic-era highs, while interest income, refunds and other receipts helped push the corpus higher. At the same time, reported payments fell to ₹87.85 lakh during the year.
Domestic Donations Continue Falling
The PM CARES Fund received about ₹479 crore in domestic voluntary contributions during FY2024-25, down from ₹681.8 crore in FY2023-24. That represents a decline of roughly 30%, according to the latest audited accounts made public in August 2026.
The latest figure is considerably below the exceptional contribution levels recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic. Domestic voluntary contributions reached ₹7,184 crore in FY2020-21 before falling to ₹1,896 crore in FY2021-22 and ₹909 crore in FY2022-23, based on the audited statements available for those years.
That longer trend provides important context. The FY2024-25 decline is not an isolated fall from one year to the next. It follows a substantial reduction from the unusually high donation flows seen when the fund was established in March 2020 amid the Covid-19 crisis.
Foreign contributions also declined in FY2024-25. Overseas donations fell 18% to ₹92.8 lakh from ₹1.13 crore in FY2023-24.
Corpus Rises Despite Lower Donations
While donations declined, the fund ended FY2024-25 with ₹8,452.06 crore, compared with about ₹7,173 crore at the end of FY2023-24. The corpus therefore increased by roughly ₹1,279 crore, or about 17.8%, during the year.
The increase cannot be attributed to donations alone. The latest financial reporting shows that the fund recorded about ₹1,279.9 crore in income during FY2024-25 from net donations, interest earned on bank and fixed deposits, and refunds from implementing agencies.
The accounts also show that about ₹7,846.65 crore, or nearly 93% of the corpus, was held in fixed deposits with scheduled banks. Around ₹605 crore was held in savings accounts.
The fixed-deposit holdings are significant because interest income has become an important component of the fund’s receipts as its corpus has accumulated. This helps explain how the overall balance could rise even as fresh domestic donations declined.
Spending Drops Sharply
The other major change in FY2024-25 was the sharp reduction in payments. Total payments from the fund stood at ₹87.85 lakh during the year, compared with ₹15.6 crore in FY2023-24.
The PM CARES for Children Scheme accounted for ₹87.8 lakh of spending in FY2024-25, compared with ₹15.37 crore in the previous financial year.
The contrast with the pandemic period is substantial. During Covid-19, PM CARES supported emergency healthcare measures, including oxygen-generation infrastructure and ventilators. The fund’s audited historical data show that spending was considerably higher during the emergency phase than in FY2024-25.
It is important, however, not to interpret the lower annual spending figure on its own as evidence that the fund is failing to meet its stated purpose. PM CARES was established as a dedicated fund for emergency or distress situations, including public-health emergencies, natural or man-made calamities and related relief.
What The Accounts Show
The latest accounts point to a PM CARES Fund that now has a very different financial profile from its first years. Domestic donations have fallen sharply from their pandemic peak, while the accumulated corpus has continued to grow.
The fund’s financial position is also increasingly influenced by returns on its accumulated reserves. With nearly 93% of the March 2025 corpus held in fixed deposits, interest earnings form an important part of the fund’s annual receipts.
At the same time, the latest accounts show that reported payments in FY2024-25 were only ₹87.85 lakh against a closing corpus of more than ₹8,452 crore. That comparison describes the financial position, but it should not be presented as proof that the entire corpus was available for unrestricted spending or that the fund had no future commitments.
Why The Numbers Matter
PM CARES was registered as a public charitable trust on March 27, 2020, with the stated objective of providing assistance during emergencies, calamities and distress. The Prime Minister is its ex-officio chairman. The fund is financed through voluntary contributions and does not receive budgetary support, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Its latest accounts therefore offer a useful snapshot of how an emergency-oriented fund has evolved after the extraordinary fundraising period of Covid-19. The central financial story is clear: fresh donations are substantially lower than during the pandemic, but the accumulated corpus is larger because receipts such as interest and refunds have helped offset the decline in contributions.
The FY2024-25 numbers also underline why distinguishing between donations, annual income, expenditure and closing corpus is important. Each measures a different part of the fund’s finances, and treating them as interchangeable can give a misleading picture of its financial position.
