The PM CARES fund is not a Government of India fund and the amount collected by it does not go to the consolidated Fund of India, the Delhi High court has been informed.
An affidavit filed by an Under-Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Offices (PMO) who is discharging his functions in the PM Cares Trust on honorary basis, has said the trust functions with transparency and its funds are audited by an auditor – a chartered accountant drawn from the panel prepared by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.
The affidavit was filed in response to a petition seeking a direction to declare the PM CARES Fund a ‘state’ under the Constitution to ensure transparency in its functioning.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Amit Bansal has fixed the matter for further hearing on 27 September.
“To ensure transparency, the audited report is put on the official website of the trust along with the details of utilization of funds received by the trust, says the affidavit filed by Pradeep Kumar Srivastava, Under Secretary at the PMO.
The trust functions on the principles of transparency and public good in larger public interest like any other charitable trust and therefore, cannot have any objection in uploading all its resolutions on its website to ensure transparency, it said, while reiterating that the trust’s fund is not a fund of Government of India and the amount does not go in the consolidated Fund of India.