New Delhi, July 28, 2020: The corporates should be spending their prescribed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund generously for community support and also towards nation building, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur has said.
The Minister was speaking at a webinar organised by industry body FICCI.
The minister said that corporates who are making profits should also be thinking more about their responsibilities towards society.
Thakur said that the government has made several changes in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) law to de-criminalise certain provisions, but rued that some corporates, by are not fulfilling their CSR duties, compel government to bring punitive sections in the CSR rules.
"On one hand, we help the corporate so that they do not need to go through this pain of criminal sections. But, if the companies are making millions and not only millions but billions out of India. Why they do not want to spend that money on the Indians," he said in a FICCI webinar on CSR.
Without taking name, Thakur said that a multi-national company which had not spent close to Rs 500 crore in the last two years as part of its CSR activities was issued notice earlier after which it was "happy" to spend that money at that time.
But now when the government has de-criminalised certain provisions for CSR Act, the same corporate is "running away again from spending that money".
He said, such violation of CSR Act forces the government to bring in certain sections so that the corporates abide by the CSR provisions.
"So my request to all of you is that it is our responsibility towards our nation, towards our public, and I am sure all of you, who have contributed immensely, will contribute more and bring more people out of poverty and make India a better place for present and future generations," he added.
The minister also requested the industry to create more awareness to contain pollution of rivers and also help the government in its fight against coronavirus.
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