Amount spent on Swachh Bharat & Clean Ganga are under CSR Activity

Govt has widened the CSR (Cor­po­rate Social respon­si­bil­i­ty) ambit by includ­ing con­tri­bu­tions made by cor­po­rates towards gov­ern­men­t’s two key ini­tia­tives — Swachh Bharat and Clean Gan­ga — will now be con­sid­ered as social wel­fare spend­ing work.

MCA has issued noti­fi­ca­tion on 24^th Octo­ber by which it has said that con­tri­bu­tions to ‘Swachh Bharat Kosh’ and ‘Clean Gan­ga Fund’ would come under CSR framework.

‘Swach Bharat Kosh’ has been set up to attract funds, from var­i­ous enti­ties includ­ing cor­po­rates, for activ­i­ties relat­ed to Swachh Bharat ini­tia­tive. The ‘Clean Gan­ga Fund’ is aimed at pool­ing mon­ey for tak­ing up works to clean the Gan­ga river.

These two ini­tia­tives are the lat­est ones brought under the Cor­po­rate Social Respon­si­bil­i­ty (CSR) ambit where already con­tri­bu­tions made to the Prime Min­is­ter’s Nation­al Relief Fund has been included.

Through a noti­fi­ca­tion, MCA made amend­ment to Sched­ule VII of Com­pa­nies Act 2013 & has insert­ed the words ‘includ­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the Swach Bharat Kosh set up by the cen­tral gov­ern­ment for the pro­mo­tion of san­i­ta­tion” in Sched­ule VII of the Act.

Down­load the Noti­fi­ca­tion issued by MCA 

Sched­ule VII of Com­pa­nies Act, 2013, per­tains to CSR activities.

Sched­ule VII also includes “con­tri­bu­tion to the Prime Min­is­ter’s Nation­al Relief Fund or any oth­er fund set up by the Cen­tral Gov­ern­ment for socio-eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and relief and wel­fare of the Sched­uled Castes, the Sched­uled Tribes, oth­er back­ward class­es, minori­ties and women”.

As per New Com­pa­nies Act 2013, com­pa­nies hav­ing at least Rs 5 crore net prof­it, or Rs 1,000 crore turnover or Rs 500 crore net worth are required to spend at least two per cent of their three-year aver­age annu­al net prof­it towards CSR activ­i­ties, begin­ning 2014–15 finan­cial year.