After last year's high, slow start to PM Relief Fund inflow

Business Standard: New Delhi: Saturday, 01 August 2015.

Collections for the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund (PMNRF) appear to have been slow at Rs 134.7 crore in the first four months of the current financial year, after it had touched a 10-year high the previous year, when the new government took charge.

This year's average at Rs 33.7 crore a month is half of last year's monthly average of Rs 67.9 crore. In 2014-15, the full-year collection was Rs 814.6 crore. The only time it was higher was in 2004-05, at Rs 926 crore.

In 2013-14, the fund got Rs 577.2 crore, from Rs 211.4 crore in 2012-13, Rs 200.8 crore in 2011-12, Rs 155.2 crore in 2010-11 and about Rs 185 crore in 2009-10, according to data provided by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) on the official website.

It's not unusual for collections to be on the lower side in the first few months. Even in 2014-15, the April to December figure was Rs 316 crore, the PMO had earlier said in reply to an application under the Right to Information (RTI) law. Close to Rs 500 crore was collected in the last three months of that year.

The PMO reply to the RTI application had refused to share information on donor names.

While Narendra Modi's first year in office saw the kitty grow by over Rs 800 crore, the collection was even higher at Rs 926 crore during the first year in the United Progressive Alliance rule under Manmohan Singh. This was the year when a tsunami had struck, causing significant loss to lives and assets.

PMNRF, constituted in 1948 to assist displaced persons from Pakistan, is now primarily utilised to offer relief for affected families of those killed or injured in natural calamities such as floods, cyclones, earthquakes or in major accidents or riots.

Currently, the total corpus under the fund, chaired by the PM, is Rs 2,286.9 crore, down from Rs 2,398.2 crore at the end of the previous financial year. Disbursals in the first four months of the current financial year, at Rs about Rs 288 crore, have been higher than the collection in the period.

To popularise the Fund, the PMO had in September 2014 asked departments to publicise the scheme of 100% tax exemption for contributions. These also qualify as CSR (corporate social responsibility) spending for companies.