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| No mandatory CSR, says govt |
| Press Trust of India / Mumbai Jun 13, 2011, 18:34 IST |
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In what could be termed as a relief for India Inc, a top government official today said the government does not wish to make corporate social responsibility (CSR) spends mandatory, but will instead come out with "flexible", "directional" guidelines.
"There is no way government wants to mandate it. If we make it mandatory there can be thousand and one ways to bypass it," Corporate Affairs Secretary DK Mittal said at a meeting organised by the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry on CSR, here.
The government will come out with "forward looking" CSR spend guidelines, he said, adding, "It will be only directional and not mandatory. We want it to be flexible. But once the new norms are in, firms will have to disclose their CSR spends or non-spending."
"Like elsewhere, we want the new companies bill to include the CSR code and we want the corporates to mandatorily disclose in their annual reports the codes which they adhere to or do not adhere to," Mittal said.
The top bureaucrat's comments are diagonally opposite to the opinion expressed by corporate affairs minister Murli Deora who had favoured making the allocation of 2% of net profit for CSR mandatory.
To the question what difference guidelines would make if CSR was not going to be made mandatory, he said the new bill would make the whole process more transparent. The new companies bill would be tabled in the monsoon session.
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