Calcutta: Coal India has stepped up efforts to meet the target allocation for its corporate social responsibility initiatives after a parliamentary panel last December pointed out that the miner had failed to meet its target earlier.
In its report on the CSR activities of Coal India, the parliamentary panel on coal and steel said, “Of the allotment of Rs 553.33 crore in 2011-12, Coal India and its subsidiaries could spend only Rs 82 crore (14.8 per cent). It is a gross failure on the part of Coal India and its subsidiaries.”
Coal India sources said the failure to meet the target was more on account of procedural delays rather than lack of funds and initiative on its part. However, after stepping up efforts to meet the target, close to 60 per cent of the Rs 474.36-crore target for 2013-14 has been met.
The miner, like all other corporate entities, will now have to reorient its CSR spending under the provisions of the Companies Act 2013.
The act mandates that any company with a net worth of at least Rs 500 crore or a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or a net profit of at least Rs 5 crore would have to spend at least 2 per cent of its average net profit of the immediately preceding three years. If a company is unable to spend the amount, an explanation will be required in the director’s report.
[The Telegraph]
