Maharatnas to navratnas: 38 PSUs give Rs 2,105 crore from CSR to PM CARES

The Indian Express
August 19, 2020

MAHARATNAS TO navratnas, energy giants to power majors, 38 PSUs have dipped into their Corporate Social Responsibility funds to together contribute over Rs 2,105 crore to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) fund since it was launched on March 28, records accessed by The Indian Express under the RTI Act show.

The fund, which was set up following the Covid outbreak, had a corpus of Rs 3,076.62 crore on March 31, 2020, of which Rs 3,075.85 crore was listed as “voluntary contributions”, according to its official website.

The Indian Express sent RTI queries to 55 PSUs and received, until August 13, responses from 38, which showed that they contributed a total of Rs 2,105.38 crore over the past five months from budget allocations in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.

Significantly, on May 28, replying to a query from The Indian Express on the contributions received, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) did not furnish details, saying: “PM Cares Fund is not a public authority under the ambit of Section 2(h) of the RTI Act. However, relevant information in respect of PM CARES Fund may be seen on the website pmcares.gov.in.

The website does not identify the contributors or provide details of contributions. Subsequently, responding to an appeal by The Indian Express, the PMO’s appellate authority said on June 24: “No information can be provided to you in this matter.”

However, replies sent by the PSUs show that in many cases, they donated from their unused allocation for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities for 2019-2020 to the fund that was launched with just four days left for the financial year to end.

In other cases, they contributed from this year’s CSR budget although the total allocation hadn’t been finalised yet. And in at least one case, a PSU acknowledged that it had contributed more than the estimate allocated for such activities.

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