Four Gujarat PSUs fail to spend prescribed amount on CSR

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat may have been among the top states in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending by companies, but the state saw a mixed response from its public sector undertakings (PSUs) with regard to CSR expenditure in 2015-16. Four out of seven PSUs of Gujarat government could not spend the prescribed amount -2% of the average net profit in last three financial years -for CSR due to various reasons.
These four companies are namely Gujarat State Petronet Ltd (GSPL), Gujarat Gas Ltd (GGL), Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd (GACL) and Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd.
However, Gujarat Mineral Development Corporation (GMDC), Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd (GSFC) and Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd (GIPCL) fulfilled the CSR obligation for fiscal 2015-16.
As per CSR Rules, 2014, companies with a net worth of Rs 500 crore or turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or net profit of Rs 5 crore or more should spend 2% of their average profit in the last three years on social development activities such as sanitation, education, healthcare and poverty alleviation, among others.
The latest annual reports of these PSUs state that Gujarat State Petronet Ltd, GGL, GNFC and GACL ended the fiscal 2015-16 with unspent CSR amount of Rs. 12.89 crore, Rs. 4.07 crore, Rs.1.40 crore and GACL Rs 81.57 lakh respectively.
As part of CSR, GSPL is setting up a semi-financed degree engineering institute in Surendranagar, for which it had signed an MoU with Gujarat government in 2011. The company had also earmarked the amount for the same.
However, the land allotted for the college was found unsuitable and the new land was yet to be allocated. Hence, “the company could not initiate activities towards the same (establishing the college),“ GSPL explained in its annual report.
Similarly, Gujarat Gas had com mitted Rs. 6.4 crore for setting up of Indian Institute of Information Technology, (IIIT) Surat. The company gave irrevocable bank guarantee of Rs 3.2 crore for the purpose. “This amount will reflect in next year,“ added sources in the company.
“Considering the net loss of Rs 452.07 crore incurred in FY 2014-15, and in order to sustain the CSR expenditure on a consistent basis, the company spent an aggregate amount of Rs 326 lakh towards CSR expenditure against the requirement of spending Rs 466 lakh for FY 2015-16,“ GNFC said in its annual report.