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Petroleum minister’s appeal to companies: Spare more than 2% of profits on CSR

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Dharmendra Pradhan
 

Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged the industry to spend up to 10% of their profit on corporate social responsibility (CSR) as this is needed to help the country develop faster.

The comments come even as reports suggest that the NSE-listed companies found no takers for their CSR funds to the tune of INR 1,717 crore in FY18, which was up 9% over the previous year, even as there was an 11 percent rise total spends at INR 10,030 crore.

The unspent component of the mandatory CSR rose to INR 1,717 crore in fiscal 2018 as against INR 1,574 crore in the previous fiscal year, according to the data released Tuesday by Prime Database, which also said only half of the 1,708 companies listed on NSE have a CSR committee in place despite the CSR Act mandating the same.

“We urge industry to spend up to 10% of your profit on CSR activities as there is no bar on them to spend only 2% of profit,” Pradhan said after inaugurating a CSR summit. Pradhan also exhorted companies to pick the remote areas for their CSR spends and target the poor, especially those belonging to the tribals, SCs/STs and Dalits to get good quality education.