Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Corporate Affairs

15-March-2016 17:54 IST

The year 2014-15 was the first year of implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by companies under Companies Act, 2013. During this year, a total of 51 Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), which have placed their Annual Report on their websites, spent about ₹ 2386.60 crores under CSR. Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 enlists the broad areas under which, companies can undertake their CSR programme / project / activities; and Board of the companies are empowered under the Act to prioritise their CSR obligation from amongst this list.

This was stated by Shri Arun Jaitley, Minister of Corporate Affairs in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today.

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DSM/KA

 

Corporate Social Responsibility obligations shape PSU expenditure and require boards to prioritise projects under Schedule frameworks. Public Sector Undertakings that published annual reports reported aggregate CSR expenditure during the first year of Companies Act implementation, reflecting application of statutory CSR mandates. Schedule VII sets out the categories for CSR programmes, and company boards are empowered to prioritise CSR obligations and select projects from that list.