Four months on, none of the 70 industries respond to the govt offer of joining hands for “development” of the state using CSR funds
On January 8 this year, the Devendra Fadnavis-led government hosted a special evening for the top corporate houses in Mumbai.
Over 100 Mumbai-based corporates were invited for the evening hosted by Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao at Raj Bhavan. Fadnavis and finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar spearheaded the conference.
The objective was to seek government partnership in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of the industries. Over 70 attendee corporates were presented with nine priority areas, including Swachh Bharat, skill development, forests and renewable energy, among others.
The government told the corporates that a team would facilitate and assist the companies and point them in the right direction so as to focus on the marginalised and the under-privileged, and maximise the impact.
Now five months down the line, not a single corporate has reportedly reverted to the government’s collaboration proposal. Several follow-ups from the administration have also gone in vain.
“We haven’t heard from any of them yet,” a highly placed source in Mantralays admitted, when dna followed up on the story. Such an embarrassing outcome of the highly publicised proposal has put the government in a fix. Everyone, however, is tight-lipped on the matter, mainly because the idea was floated by “very senior people” in the government.
Sources in the industry said they refrained from partnership, mainly due to red-tapism in the government system, which continued even after the change of the guard. Besides, a fear of possible corruption in such tie-ups also reportedly discouraged them.
“The government has a multi-layered set-up, which requires repeated follow-ups and a lot of time and patience to get something done. Are we supposed to compromise on our freedom to get this treatment?” said an official from one of the corporates invited for the meet.
Several government officials admitted, on the condition of anonymity, that they were apprehensive about the partnership proposal since beginning but their suggestions were ignored. “It was anyway a flawed idea. The governments are not supposed to tell business houses how they should do their charity work. It is wrong, both legally and morally,” said an official.
Another official, however, defended the government, “The CSR money is not a big amount considering the annual budget of the government. India Inc spends spends Rs5,000 crore annually on CSR. Maharashtra might be getting not more than Rs500 crore. The state’s annual budget is to the tune of Rs2.5 lakh crore.”
Planning department secretary Sunil Porwal, who is overseeing the corporate collaborations, declined to comment on the issue.
The new Companies Act implemented in 2014 made it mandatory for companies with a net worth of Rs500 crore or more, or with an annual turnover of Rs1,000 crore or more, or net profit of Rs5 crore or more, to spend at least 2% of their average net profit for the preceding three financial years on CSR activities.
CSR figures
Total outlay towards CSR in India for 2015: Rs6,490 crore (Source: A 2015 report by KPMG)
Number of CSR projects in Maharashtra: 205 (maximum among Indian states)
Number of CSR projects in Karnataka: 152
Number of CSR projects in West Bengal: 123
Number of CSR projects in Tamil Nadu: 122
This article was taken from here.