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Blue-chip Central Public Sector Enterprises like Coal India, Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC and SAIL have not fully utilised their funds allocated for undertaking corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects in 2011-12.
Of the five Maharatna PSUs, four of them — Coal India, Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC and SAIL — have not fully used funds earmarked for CSR in the last fiscal, Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Praful Patel said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
During 2011-12, CIL earmarked an amount of Rs 553 crore but spent merely Rs 77 crore while ONGC allocated Rs 378 crore and utilised only Rs 121 crore, the figures tabled in the House said.
Indian Oil Corporation allocated about Rs 96 crore and used only Rs 83 crore and SAIL allocation was Rs 64 crore and utilised amount was Rs 61 crore, for carrying out CSR activities.
However, NTPC exceeded the limit of allocated amount for carrying out CSR activities in the last fiscal. The company had earmarked Rs 45 crore and spent Rs 49 crore.
As regard to 16 Navratna PSUs, 4 of them — BHEL, GAIL, Hindustan Petroleum and RINL — have not fully utilised the allocated amount for carrying out such projects, the figures showed.
However, another five Navratna PSUs — Bharat Petroleum, National Aluminium Company, Oil India, PFC and Rural Electrification Corporation — have fully utilised these funds during the period under review.
Another six Navratnas — Bharat Electronics Ltd, Hindustan Aeronautics, NMDC, Neyveli Lignite Corp, Power Grid and Shipping Corporation have exceeded the limit of allocated amount.
Loss-making Navratna PSU MTNL is not mandated to earmark specific funds for CSR activities.
According to the guidelines on CSR for CPSEs, the CSR budget has to be mandatorily allocated through a board resolution as percentage of net profit in the previous year.
PSUs whose net profit is less than Rs 100 crore have to contribute 3-5 per cent of their income for CSR while PSUs with profits between Rs 100-500 crore would be required to earmark 2-3 per cent.
Further, those companies earning a profit of Rs 500 crore and above, CSR spending should be between 0.5 to 2 per cent of their net profit.
Patel said : “The CSR budget is to be fixed for each fiscal and this fund does not lapse. The unutilised funds in a particular year have to be transferred to a CSR fund which will accumulate.”
He, however said, loss-making companies are not mandated to earmark specific funds for CSR activities.
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