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The net corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending by companies is unlikely to touch the projected ₹20,000 crore as has been reported since the enactment of a new law in April.
According to participants of a two-day national meet on ‘Sustainability & CSR for Inclusive Growth’, organised by Greetech Foundation, the figure may be just one third of the projected amount of ₹20,000 crore.
The Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) has maintained that around 16,352 companies fall within the purview of Section 135 of the Companies Act, that makes CSR spends mandatory.
A release issued by the seminar’s organisers maintain that 70 per cent of these 16,352 companies are not large because of which the net CSR spend is expected to be around ₹5,000 crore.
Professionals The CSR roll out will also require a large number of professionals, estimated to be around 30,000.
According to Bhaskar Chatterjee, DG & CEO, IICA, the institute is offering a nine-month long online training programme and the first batch of 200 trained CSR professionals will be in the market by July.
He further pointed out that there are approximately 3.3 million registered non-governmental organisations in the country, of which around 10 lakh are fully functional.
Implementation of CSR But each NGO has an average absorptive capacity of around ₹20 lakh annually. This means that there will be requirement for 1,00,000 NGOs to carry forward the CSR agenda.
According to Chatterjee, 16,000 companies are expected to file their first ever CSR report over the next two months. These reports will be combined by the IICA and a report will be submitted to the Ministry and Parliament.
He further said that most companies are unlikely to spend the mandated 2 per cent of net profit on CSR for which they may have to give an explanation to the Ministry.
Three new areas – Urban Slum Development, Swachch Bharath and Clean Ganga Project – have recently been added to the CSR mandate, he added, as per the release issued by the New Delhi-based Greentech Foundation.
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