It has reported that India Inc will soon be allowed to claim expenditure on COVID-19 vaccines as corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending. The government is planning to issue new norms which will allow companies to procure coronavirus vaccines for community inoculation drive, including employees and their family members, and claim it as CSR spending.
The government will issue norms in the form of frequently asked questions on how such expenditure can be counted as part of a company’s CSR obligations as long as it is part of a community-based vaccination project, Economic Times reported recently, citing a government official.
However, according to the proposed norms, companies can only claim vaccination cost as CSR activity if they also inoculate local communities around their offices or factories in a non-discriminatory manner, the report said.
Several companies such as Reliance Industries, Accenture, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HCFC Bank, and ICICI Bank have announced that they will cover costs of COVID-19 vaccination for its employees as well as their family members.
Firms will be allowed to claim the expense as CSR activity after disclosure of such information is made to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), the report said.
“In a broad interpretation, yes, if it is a locality or area-based approach where employees also reside. But if it is only for their employees’ colony, then obviously not,” the official said, as per the report.
Earlier, Biocon’s Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has asked the government to allow corporates to vaccinate their employees, using the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds.
At present, corporates with a net worth of Rs 500 crore, or revenues exceeding Rs 1,000 crore, or net profit over Rs 5 crore, have to spend 2 percent of their average profit over the last three years on CSR programmes.
