Education made up 33% of firms' CSR spend in FY23, shows govt data

Reliance topped social spending from FY19 to FY22

Education continues to get the highest amount under companies’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure with Rs 10,085 crore, the largest ever, in FY23, according to the government data. 

As the government nudges top companies to direct their corporate social responsibility expenditure towards the proposed internship scheme, education accounted for one-third of the CSR spend in FY23. However, the amount spent on vocational skills under CSR was much less at Rs 1,164 crore in FY23, marginally up from the Rs 1,033 crore in the previous year. 

The Centre wants companies to direct their CSR more towards skilling and make India’s youth employable instead of spending on development and social infrastructure-related activities, which the government is well equipped to do. 

Health, rural development, environment sustainability, and livelihood enhancement are the other four sectors that have drawn high amounts of CSR funds (see chart).

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The sharpest jump can be seen in the CSR spend on animal welfare. It went up from Rs 17 crore in FY15 to over Rs 315 crore in FY23. 

 

The Companies Act makes CSR a mandatory and a statutory obligation, making India one of the few countries to do so.

Most countries have taken a voluntary approach to CSR. Countries such as Norway and Sweden, which have voluntary CSR, have started by a mandatory provision. 

The company-wise breakup of the data given on the National CSR portal showed that HDFC Bank had become the top CSR spender in the country with Rs 803 crore in FY23. 

For the last four years, for which the data is available, Reliance Industries had been the top spender. In FY23, Reliance Industries, with an expenditure of Rs 743.4 crore, slipped to third spot, behind HDFC Bank and Tata Consultancy Services.

CSR expenditure under the Prime Minister Relief Fund, after picking up in the pandemic years, came down to Rs 815.85 crore in FY23 compared to Rs 1,215 crore in FY22 and Rs 1,698 crore in FY21.  

Technology incubators got the lowest amount, with only Rs 1 crore in FY23 compared to Rs 8.6 crore in the previous year. 

According to the corporate affairs ministry data, CSR expenditure increased from Rs 26,579.78 crore in FY22 to Rs 29,986.92 crore in FY23. The number of projects went up to 51,966 in FY23 from 44,425 the year before.

Companies other than those in the public sector account for 84 per cent of the CSR spend.