Corporates to pump in Rs 14,000 cr towards CSR in 2014-15: FM

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said companies are expected to pump in as much as Rs 14,000 crore for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities in 2014-15 and the amount will be increasing in subsequent years.

“… CSR alone in its very first year is going to contribute about Rs 14,000 crore into the (social) sector and that’s reasonably a large amount of money. This is going to increase year after year as corporate profits increase,” he said while speaking at a function organised jointly by the Jubilant Bhartia and Schwab foundations.

Under the new Companies Act, certain class of profitable companies are required to spend at least 2 per cent of their three-year average annual net profit for CSR activities.

Noting that corporates are late entrants in the charitable activities in the country, Jaitley said, “the best in the Indian society is yet to be realised…They (corporates) are essentially obsessed with their cause, they are convinced about their cause.”

The Indian society was currently “witnessing a passing phase or turning point”, he said, expressing the hope that corporate would enter the charity in a big way.

“Its impact will now be fully seen. (It will be) appreciated by even those who are otherwise unaware or unwilling to recognise the contribution,” Jaitley said.

The Minister later gave India Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2014 award to Hanumappa Sudarshan of Karuna Trust. (PTI)