Nifty 50 Companies Spent 92.7% Of The Mandated Rs 5,478 Crore On CSR Activities This Year

Spending increased by 27% this year on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities. Nifty 50 companies were able to spend Rs 5,082 crore out of the mandated Rs 5,478 crore as per findings of a report published by CimplyFive Corporate Secretarial Services, a tech solution provider for compliance.

The Companies Act, 2013 mandates every registered companies with a net worth of Rs 500 crores or more or turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or more or a net profit of Rs 5 crore or more during a particular financial year to ensure that at least 2% of the average profits of the past three years is spent on CSR.

Of the 50 companies analysed except for SBI and Bank of Baroda, reported their CSR spending in their annual report. Sun Pharma and Tata Motors which are not mandated under section 135 of companies Act, spent Rs 20.57 crore and Rs 11.65 crore respectively.

Promoting education and eradicating poverty, hunger still remained the top choice when it came to spending by corporate houses totalling Rs 2,104 crore out of Rs 5,082 crore spent on CSR activities. Expenditure for the benefit of armed forces veterans, war widows and their dependents still remains the activity on which the least amount of Rs 0.1 crore was spent.

25 companies were able to spend less than the prescribed mandated amount which included the likes of Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, TCS, ICICI Bank, HDFC, Infosys, Bosch, etc. Different explanations were cited such as multi-year project, delay in implementation due to regulatory/administrative issues, etc.

The report also highlighted that an average of 5000-8000 companies are established each month with around 10,83,152 active companies in India as on February, 2016.

Reliance the top spender on CSR activities spent Rs 651.6 crore in 2016 compared to Rs 760.5 crore in 2015, while ONGC the second biggest spender, spent Rs 593.7 crore in 2016 compared to Rs 660.6 crore in 2015.

The overall participation and compliance has increased by companies. Increased personal involvement are showing signs of long terms commitments and sustainability at the ground levels.

Thank you for reading the story until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better.

Regards,
The CSR Journal Team