One-Fourth of the Companies Spend More Than the Prescribed CSR; Two-Third Miss the Target

When the new Government took charge in May 2014, companies were expecting that there would be drastic changes in the Companies Act 2013 and the Government may withdraw the provisions of mandatory CSR spending, stipulated in the Section 135. But it did not happen, and companies had to plan for spending their prescribed CSR amount as per the provisions of the Act. 

As a few companies have announced their annual report of the last financial year (FY 2014-15), it has been exciting to analyze them and find a few points that can present an overview of CSR spending and CSR compliances among the companies.   

The Analysis

We selected 100 BSE-listed companies that have published their annual report and where information about the CSR spending was available as on July 16, 2015. These 100 companies are a good representation of large and medium companies and account for 33 sectors as per the BSE sector classifications. We have kept Public Sector Units and Public Sector Banks out of the purview of this analysis as the required information was not available.

Key Findings of the study:

• Nearly one-fourth (27%) of the companies spent more than the prescribed CSR spend and about two-third (64%) of the companies  spent less than the prescribed CSR spend.
• 2% of the companies spent zero amount from their prescribed CSR spend and 9% the companies  spent exactly same as the prescribed CSR amount. 39% of the companies  spent more than 50% of the prescribed CSR spent but missed the target of the prescribed CSR spend. 

Download the full summary report here