CHENNAI: While India Inc has battled headwinds on the business front due to Covid-induced lockdowns, the CSR spends of companies have grown by 3.62% to Rs 22,000 crore in FY21. The PM-CARES Fund, however, has witnessed a colossal fall in contributions.
A Crisil report on Tuesday said, assuming that the spending was around the mandated mark of 2% of average profit of the preceding three fiscals, firms would have spent Rs 22,000 crore on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in FY21 as against Rs 21,231 crore in FY20.
At the same time, corporate contributions to the PM-CARES Fund saw a massive fall from Rs 4,316 crore during the first wave between March and May 2020 to only Rs 85 crore during the second wave between March and June 2021.
“In fiscal 2020, the top priorities for India Inc continued to be education and skill development, as well as healthcare and sanitation - both accounting for 53% of the total spend on CSR,” it said. It added that healthcare and sanitation remained the second-highest head and rural development was the fourth-highest. In FY20, of the total CSR spend of Rs 14,431 crore, 13% or Rs 1,815 crore was spent on the Covid cause, making it the third largest area in terms of spending. The share of pandemic-related CSR spending is estimated to have climbed to 62% in FY21.
“The successive waves of Covid-19 have been a litmus test of corporate altruism — with companies having to balance employee well-being initiatives, business imperatives and their social contract. Given the expectations of a third wave, the probability of diverting more funds during this fiscal year seems imminent,” said Maya Vengurlekar, COO, Crisil Foundation.
Contribution to PM-CARES
Total CSR Spending
Covid spends