460 cos spent Rs 6,337 cr for CSR in FY15: Arun Jaitley

Of the 460 companies, 51 PSUs spent Rs 2,386.60 crore; 266 firms spent less than 2% of the average profit

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

As many as 460 companies spent a little over Rs 6,337 crore for corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities last fiscal, Parliament was informed today.

In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley said a total of 460 listed firms have so far disclosed spending Rs 6,337.36 crore in 2014-15. This included 51 PSUs that spent Rs 2,386.60 crore.

The new Companies Act mandates every company with a networth of Rs 100 crore to set aside minimum 2% of their 3-year average annual net profit for CSR activities.

Of the 460 companies, 266 firms spent less than 2% of the average profit, he said.

He added that being the first year of implementation of CSR legislation, inability of companies to formulate well conceived policy, delay in formation of CSR committee, difficulty in finding suitable implementation agency and adoption of long term CSR projects are some of reasons given by firms for not being able to spend the required amount.

The minister also said that PSUs utilised about 71% of their mandated CSR fund (Rs 3,359.84 crore), while that of private sector companies was 79%.

Separately, Jaitley said that expenditure of Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) stood at Rs 27.92 crore in the last three financial years.

The expenditure was at Rs 8.83 crore, Rs 9.25 crore and Rs 9.84 crore in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively.

SFIO is the investigation arm of the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

Besides, a total of 349 cases have been referred to SFIO for investigation till date.