Lok Sabha Question No. 2455 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-03-11
Subject: Corporate Social Responsibility
Ministry: FINANCE
Asked by: ANOOP MISHRA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF FINANCE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCIAL SERVICES

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. †2455

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 11 th  March, 2016/ Phalguna 21,1937 (SAKA)

## Corporate Social Responsibility

## QUESTION

## †2455. SHRI ANOOP MISHRA:

Will the Minister of FINANCE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  public/private  sector/foreign  banks  and  insurance  companies  are  being implementing the Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives;
- (b) the details of the criterion and methodology for selecting beneficiaries by the banks in this regard;
- (c) whether some of the private sector and foreign banks are not performing well in CSR as compare to public sector banks; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof and the measures taken by the Government in this regard?

## ANSWER

The Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance (SHRI JAYANT SINHA)

(a) to (c) :  The mandatory provision of spending under CSR under the Companies Act 2013 is not applicable to Public Sector Banks (PSBs) except IDBI and BMB.  However, PSBs do such spending  under Reserve  Bank  of  India guidelines  on  'Donations  by  Banks'  vide  circular DBOD.No.Dir.BC.15/13.01.01/2002-03  dated  August  6,  2002,  in  terms  of  which  banks  can make donations during a financial year, aggregating up to 1 % of their published profit for the previous year. In case of loss making banks, they can make donations totaling Rs. 5.00 lakhs only in a financial year. It may be iterated that spending on donations by banks is voluntary in nature subject to respective Board's approval.

The donations are in the field of Health, Education, Sports and Games, Adoption of a girl child, Women's empowerment, Child development, Welfare and rehabilitation of poor and handicapped,  Assistance  to  poor  and  underprivileged,  Entrepreneur  development  programs, Vocational  guidance,  Thrust  for  assistance  to  IT  Education  in  rural/tribal/unreached  areas, Environment  protection,  Adoption,  Maintenance,  restoration  of  Historic/  heritage  monuments, building including activities such as audio visual and son-et-lumiere shows, Assistance during natural calamities like flood/ droughts etc.

In  terms  of  Section  135  of  the  Companies  Act  2013,  provisions  of  Corporate  Social Responsibility  extends  to  every  company  including  public/private  sector/  foreign  banks  and insurance  companies  having  net  worth  of  rupees  five  hundred  crore  or  more,  or  turnover  of rupees one thousand crore or more net profit of rupees five crore or more. The CSR Committee and  Board  of  each  such  company  are  empowered  to  have  the  company's  CSR  policy formulated including identification of beneficiaries for its CSR programmes / projects.

- (d)  : Ministry  of  Corporate  Affairs  has  issued  clarificatory  circular  and  Frequently  Asked Questions (FAQs) dated 18.06.2014 and 12.01.2016 respectively to facilitate effective implementation of CSR and ensure compliance by companies under the legislation.

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