Covid-19: Donations to CM relief fund will not qualify as CSR

Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) on Saturday, said that donations made by Companies to the chief minister’s relief fund or the state relief fund towards the fight against Covid-19 will not be considered as corporate social responsibility (CSR), only those to the newly established Prime Minister ‘s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) fund or to the State Disaster Management Authority will be taken into consideration.

Under the Companies Act, 2013, certain classes of profitable entities are required to spent at least 2 per cent of their three-year average annual net profit towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.

It is said that, MCA and finance ministry received many requests over whether donations to ‘Chief Minister’s Relief Fund’ also would count as CSR spending. But, as per existing law, this is not allowed.

As per one of the government officials, If CM Relief Fund is included, CSR money will not flow outside of the industrial states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Industrial states will consume about 57% of the about Rs 15,000 annual CSR funds and non-industrial states like Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and the Northeast would get nothing.