Covid or something else! Country’s CSR expenditure sees a sharp dip in 2020-21

New Delhi, 06 December 2021: In the financial year 2020-21, Covid has led to a significant decline in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure in India. Even the number of companies spending money on CSR activities has also declined.

As compared to 2019-20, there has been a 65 per cent decline in the CSR expenditure in Covid year, informed Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh in the Lok Sabha. He was responding to a question asked by several parliamentarians including Sudhakar Tukaram Shrangare, Rajendra Dhedya Gavit, Dileshwar Kamait, Devji M Patel and few others.

They asked, “Whether the Government has any record of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds spent by the companies during the last three financial years and the current year?”

The minister of state informed that a total of Rs 8,828.11 crore was spent on CSR activities in 2020-21 as compared to Rs 24, 688.66 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 20,150.27 crore in 2018-19. Number of companies spending CSR amount has also seen a sharp decline in the Covid year. In 2020-21, only 1,619 companies spent on CSR activities as compared to 22,531 in 2020-19 and 25,099 in 2018-19.

The same trend was noticed in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). In 2018-19, a total of 615 PSUs were spending on CSR activities which declined to 452 in the financial year 2019-20 and reduced to merely 20 in 2020-21. Companies falling in certain brackets are required to do CSR spend amounting to 2% of their average annual profit over the past three years.

However, 2020-21 has seen unprecedented challenges in terms of Covid-19 pandemic which has killed more than around 4 lakh people in India and millions across the world. Many countries put restrictions on all economic activities to stop the spread of viruses. These experiences have accumulated in huge loss of earning for corporates as well.

However, it is tough to say that the fall is because of Covid 19 as the companies are supposed to spend 2% of their three years annual average income. Minister of State Singh also did not clear the entire picture and just furnished the details on the basis of filings made by the companies in the MCA21 registry.