Question : Use of CSR Fund

(a) the sailent features of Apni Dharohar Apni Pehchaan scheme;

(b) whether national heritage and sports infrastructure falls under Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 and if so, the details of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds spent on national heritage development and sports infrastructure during the last five years;

(c) the details of expenditure incurred and unspent fund under CSR by Public Sector Enterprises and private companies during the last five financial years;

(d) the details of new jobs created under the CSR activity during the said period; and

(e) whether the Government has formulated any monitoring mechanism on pre and post implementation of programmes under CSR so as to ensure full expenditure of funds by companies under CSR and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR FINANCE
AND CORPORATE AFFAIRS (SHRI ANURAG SINGH THAKUR)
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(a) : As per inputs provided by Ministry of Tourism, Government of India has launched the “Adopt a Heritage: Apni Dharohar, Apni Pehchaan” project which is a collaborative effort by the Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture, Archaeological Survey of India and State/ UTs Government for developing tourism amenities at heritage/ natural/ tourist sites spread across India for making them tourist friendly, in a planned and phased manner. The project aims to encourage companies from public sector, private sector, trusts, NGOs, individuals and other stakeholders to become ‘Monument Mitras’ and take up the responsibility of developing and upgrading the basic and advanced tourist amenities at these sites as per their interest and viability in terms of a sustainable investment model under Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR). They would also look after the Operation & Maintenance of the same.
Contd…..2/


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(b) to (e) The broad framework for CSR is provided through Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 (‘Act’), the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014 and Schedule VII of the Act. The Schedule VII indicates the activities that can be undertaken by the companies as eligible CSR activities. Item no. (v) of Schedule VII covers “Protection of national heritage, art and culture including restoration of building and sites of historical importance and works of art; setting up public libraries; promotion and development of traditional arts and handicrafts”. Similarly, item no. (vii) covers “training to promote rural sports, nationally recognized sports, Paralympic sports and Olympic sports”. Ministry of Corporate Affairs vide General Circular no. 21/2014 dated 18th June, 2014 clarified that items mentioned in Schedule VII are broad based and can be interpreted liberally. The CSR architecture is disclosure based and CSR mandated companies are required to file details of its CSR activities annually in MCA21 registry. On the basis of filings made by the Companies in the MCA21 registry, the CSR spent by all the companies in the areas of Art and Culture and training to promote sports is at Annexure-I. Further, the CSR spent by various public and private sector companies for the last five financial years is at Annexure-II.

Under the Act, CSR is a Board driven process and the Board of the company is empowered to plan, decide, execute and monitor CSR activities of the company based on the recommendation of its CSR Committee. The existing legal provisions such as mandatory disclosures, accountability of the CSR Committee and the Board, provisions for statutory audit of accounts of the company etc. provide sufficient safeguards for implementation of CSR by the companies. Whenever any violation of CSR provisions is reported, action against such non-compliant Companies are initiated as per provisions of the Act after due examination of records and following due process of law.

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Annexure-I

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3154 FOR 15.03.2021

Development
Sector FY
2015-16
Amount Spent
(INR Cr.) FY
2016-17
Amount Spent (INR Cr.) FY
2017-18
Amount Spent
(INR Cr.) FY
2018-19
Amount Spent (INR Cr.) FY
2019-20 Amount Sp.ent (INR Cr.) Grand Total
(INR Cr.)
Art and Culture 119.17 305.57 284.06 189.89 48.08 946.77
Training to Promote Sports 140.12 180.33 227.75 295.10 98.97 942.27
Grand Total (INR Cr.) 259.29 485.9 511.81 484.99 147.05 1889.04
(Data upto 30.09.2020) [Source: National CSR Data Portal]



Annexure-II

ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3154 FOR 15.03.2021

Nature of Company FY 2015-16 FY 2016-17 FY 2017-18 FY 2018-19 FY 2019-20
Num-ber of companies Amount Spent
(INR Cr.) Num-ber of companies Amount Spent
(INR Cr.) Num-ber of companies Amount Spent
(INR Cr.) Num-ber of companies Amount Spent
(INR Cr.) Num-ber of companies Amount Spent
(INR Cr.)
Public Sector Under-takings (PSUs) 533 4,214.69 550 3,295.99 535 2,704.32 609 3,835.50 14 438.29
Non- PSUs 17,759 10,302.52 18,999 11,046.05 20,915 11,185.53 24,323 14,819.32 1061 7,384.21
Grand Total 18292 14,517.21 19,549 14,342.04 21,450 13,889.85 24,932 18,654.82 1,075 7,822.50
(Data upto 30.09.2020) [Source: National CSR Data Portal]



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