Union Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Praful Patel has said the Corporate Sector can not avoid its responsibility of improving the lives of people. Shri Patel was responding to a question from media after inaugurating the National Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Hub at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai this afternoon. He said the corporate sector had benefitted from the overall development process hence it should not have any problems with the CSR related provisions in the new Companies Bill mandating it to put aside a certain portion of profits for welfare of society. The Minister said that government cannot take all the responsibility as there is a large section of society, which is still marginalized and impoverished. “If everybody thinks that government can solve all the problems of people then it is impossible,” he said.
The government had in April last year issued CSR guidelines for all the Central Public Sector Enterprises (PSE). Under CSR guidelines CPSE have to create CSR budget as a specified percentage of net profit of the previous year. If the profit is less than 100 crore then CSR budget to would be 3-5% of the net profit. If the profit is between Rs. 100 crores and Rs.500 crores then CSR budget allocation would be 2-3% of the net profit subject to minimum of Rs. 3.00 crores. If the profit exceeds Rs.500 crores then the CSR budget allocation would be 0.5-2% of the net profit. National CSR Hub will undertake activities like nationwide compilation of data, creation of data base, advocacy, research, promotional activities etc.
Shri Patel said that CSR Hub will give the Central PSE a system for implementing their CSR programmes. He said that besides their individual CSR programs, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) would identify some programs for Central PSE’s, which will benefit large section of society and would be implemented by a number of Central PSE’s working together. He said the National Hub at TISS will monitor these projects, which would be implemented in remote areas. He said the big city centers are well covered by a number of NGOs working in this field however, the remote areas remain neglected hence the Central PSEs would be asked to focus on remote areas.
Lauding the role played by Central PSE, earlier in this inaugural speech, Shri Patel said the CSR role of Central PSEs had to be seen in the light of high market capitalization and their contribution to growth of this country and especially the remote areas where they are located. He said the Central PSEs contributed nearly 1/3 rd to the market capitalization and if other PSEs went public and they were re-evaluated, their market capitalization would be more than that of private sector.
TISS has committed a space of 10,000 sq ft. in its upcoming building, presently under construction in Nauroji Campus. Once this building is constructed, the CSR Hub will start functioning at the new location. Dr. Sharit K. Bhowmik, Professor of Labour Studies and Dean, School of Management and Labour Studies, TISS to be the overall in charge of the Hub.