The Corporate Affairs Ministry had last year taken a number of steps to ensure that companies could classify spends on tackling Covid-19 as part of their CSR expenditure.
The corporate Affairs Ministry on Thursday clarified that expenditure incurred by India Inc on awareness campaigns on the Covid-19 vaccination programme would be counted towards their mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure.
All companies with a net worth of Rs 500 crore or more, a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or more, or net profit of Rs 5 crore or more are required to spend 2 per cent of their average profit of the previous three years on CSR activities every year.
“… spending of CSR funds for carrying out awareness campaigns/programmes or public outreach campaigns on Covid-19 vaccination programme is an eligible CSR activity,” the Ministry said in a notification. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to launch the rollout of India’s Covid-19 vaccine programme on January 16 with about 3 lakh healthcare workers set to receive vaccine shots on the first day of the programme.
The Corporate Affairs Ministry had last year taken a number of steps to ensure that companies could classify spends on tackling Covid-19 as part of their CSR expenditure. The Ministry had notified las year that any donations to the PM-CARES Fund and state disaster disaster management authorities would count towards mandatory CSR expenditure.
