The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt Nirmala Sitaraman during the Press Conference in Goa on 20th September, while elaborating the salient features of amendments to taxation laws also mentioned a change proposed to the Companies Act, 2013 in the area of Corporate Social Responsibility as under:-
The Government has also decided to expand the scope of CSR 2 percent spending. Now CSR 2% fund can be spent on incubators funded by Central or State Government or any agency or Public Sector Undertaking of Central or State Government, and, making contributions to public funded Universities, IITs, National Laboratories and Autonomous Bodies (established under the auspices of ICAR, ICMR, CSIR, DAE, DRDO, DST, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) engaged in conducting research in science, technology, engineering and medicine aimed at promoting SDGs.
It is noteworthy that, as per Section 135 of Companies Act, 2013 every Company having net worth of rupees 500 crore or more, or turnover of rupees 1000 crore or more or a net profit of rupees 5 crore or more during the immediately preceding year shall constitute a Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the Board.
As per Section 135(5) of Companies Act, 2013 the Board of every company to which CSR is applicable, shall ensure that the company spends, in every financial year, at least 2% of the average net profits of the company made during the three immediately preceding financial years, in pursuance of its Corporate Social Responsibility Policy. The company shall choose to undertake any activity as mentioned Schedule VII of Companies Act, 2013.
Source: Press information Bureau, Government of India
