North East India's largest refiner Numaligarh Refinery Ltd on Sunday said it will pump in over Rs 60 crore in various developmental projects under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities during 2019- 20.
Of the total spending under the CSR head, the miniratna PSU in Assam's Golaghat district has earmarked 60 per cent funds for school education, health and nutrition programmes.
"In 2019-20, our CSR budget is Rs 62 crore. In this fiscal, a few aspirational districts are under consideration for undertaking developmental activities apart from other programmes," NRL Managing Director S K Barua told PTI here.
The developmental programmes in these aspirational districts will be other than the "local areas" of the plant as defined in the CSR and Sustainability Policy of NRL, he added.
On the proposed areas where the company plans to spend the CSR amount, Barua said, "As per the Government of India guidelines, 60 per cent of the budgeted amount needs to be spent on school education, health and nutrition."
Apart from these fields, NRL will work on many other focus areas such as skill development and livelihood generation, rural development, sanitation, safe drinking water, Swachh Bharat Mission and promotion of sports, he informed.
When asked about last fiscal's CSR spending, Barua said, "During 2018-19, the total CSR expenditure of NRL was Rs 54.85 crore. Every financial year, at least 2 per cent of the average net profit made during the three immediately preceding financial years is earmarked for CSR activities."
The NRL is expanding its capacity from existing 3 to 9 million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) at an investment of Rs 22,594 crore, which also includes a 1,398 km crude oil pipeline of 9 MMTPA from Paradip to Numaligarh and a 654 km product pipeline of 6 MMTPA from Numaligarh to Siliguri, over the next 48 months.
With implementation of the mega expansion project, the NRL is looking to ramp up its headcount by over 62 per cent to nearly 1,425 in the next four years.
Apart from direct employment, around 12,000 indirect jobs will also be created during the construction stage of the new units for increasing its output.
Meanwhile, the company has already announced plans to diversify its portfolio and decided to enter exploration of crude oil within next few months.
It has received board approval for an initial investment of Rs 150 crore for diversification into exploration business and has applied for necessary government approvals for two blocks in Assam along with other partners.
The company was set up in accordance with the provisions made in the historic Assam Accord and has been conceived as a vehicle for speedy industrial and economic development of the North Eastern region.
In NRL, BPCL has 61.65 per cent stake, while Oil India and Assam government have 26 per cent and 12.35 per cent holding respectively.
The present authorised capital of the company is Rs 1,000 crore and paid up capital is Rs 735.63 crore.
The company's product range includes LPG, naphtha, motor spirit, aviation turbine fuel, superior kerosene oil, high speed diesel, raw petroleum coke, calcined petroleum coke, sulphur, wax, nitrogen, mineral turpentine oil, special boiling point spirit and liquid sulphur.
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