Lupin Limited fails to meet its CSR obligations for four years in a row

New Delhi, 4 February 2021: Lupin limited, a Mumbai based Pharmaceutical Company has recently been in news for making good profits despite the pandemic induced slowdown. But when it comes to spending on social causes as a responsibility mandated by Companies Act 2013, the pharma giant seems to have failed miserably in the past four years.

The prescribed corporate social responsibility budget for the company in 2019-20 was calculated as Rs 55.51 crore. However, the company spent only Rs 34.2 crores and failed to spend the rest of 38% of its CSR budget for the financial year.

As a reason for not having been able to spend the total CSR budget the company in its annual report gave an excuse saying, "Despite best efforts, the Company has been unable to execute its ambitious plan of setting up a state of the art JCI and NABH accredited hospital in Mumbai as it could not identify a suitable plot."

The company hasn’t been able to spend most of its funds from it prescribed CSR budget from financial year 2016-17 to 2019-20 (See table)

Details of Lupin Limited’s CSR Expenses from FY 2016-17 to 2019-20

According to companies Act 2013, a company is expected to spend 2% of its average profit of the last three years on corporate social responsibility activities. The Company followed the norm in the first two years of the Act being implemented but lost track after that.

In the financial year 2016-17, its prescribed CSR budget was around Rs 66.25 crore out of which it failed to spend more than 70% of the amount. In the subsequent years, it kept missing its targets on the pretext of some or the other excuses.

The company’s core area of CSR includes education, healthcare, skill development and rural development. Majority of the Lupin Limited’s CSR activities are carried out through its CSR arm CSR arm Lupin Human Welfare and Research Foundation (LHWRF).

Lupin is one of the largest generic pharmaceutical companies by revenue globally. The pharma company’s key focus areas include paediatrics, cardiovascular, anti-infectives, diabetology, asthma and anti-tuberculosis.