Nifty 50 companies' 2016 CSR spending rise by 27%

The Nifty 50 companies have spent about 27% more in CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities this year, compared to last year, said a report by CimplyFive Corporate Secretarial Services, a tech solution provider for compliance. According to the report, the companies spent around Rs 5,082 crore or 92.7% of the mandated Rs 5,478 crores, on CSR activities this year.

This year also saw an increase in the compliance levels of the companies by 13.7% in terms of the percentage of spends in respect to the mandated amount. Last year, the Nifty 50 had spent only Rs 3,989 crores or 79% of the mandatory Rs 5,046 crores.

 

The Companies Act, 2013 mandated 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.

The report adds that on the compliance-level, the number of companies who have not spent the mandated CSR amount came down to 25 this year from 32 last year. The companies cited reasons like multiyear projects, scaling up in coming years and delay in implementation due to regulatory or administrative issues for shortfall in their CSR spendings.

Education and health sectors again became the largest benefactor from CSR spending activities with about 48% spend on these activities.