CSR News – Bringing Transparency in CSR

CSR mandate in India has given space for new businesses to exist – the CSR consulting and implementing agencies. These agencies are responsible for coordinating with the corporates and non-profits. They also assist the corporates in selecting the best projects suitable for their brand and even implementing them.

According to a report, CSR spending by top 500 companies of the country had reached up to 50,000 crore rupees from 2014 since the law had been implemented. It is important to ensure that such a large amount of sum is spent in an efficient manner. Especially since tax incentives can be claimed by companies on CSR activities.

In order to enable this, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is planning to introduce identification numbers for agencies who implement the CSR projects on the behalf of various companies in order to monitor the work the firms claim that they are doing, according to a report by Financial Express.

As part of the move, firstly, the implementing agencies will have to get registered with MCA. Then the details of the work they are doing on behalf of various companies and the progress in each project will have to be uploaded on the website. This will provide the public, the access to the information who would then be able to verify if the claims made by a certain company are true or not.

The proposed move will create a comprehensive repository on existing CSR projects and will also help in identifying the ones which can use more support. This will generate more transparency in the CSR spending by companies and will also benefit the companies in identifying the projects in an efficient manner. This will also be beneficial to the government in controlling tax evasions.

India Inc. will now be able to officially show their commitment to social and national development. They will be able to generate trust among the people and gain more loyal customers and employees by this.