New Delhi, 29 January 2021: Reliance Industries has yet again topped the list of highest CSR spending corporates in the financial year 2019-20. The company spent a total of Rs 908 Crore on its Corporate Social Responsibility projects, exceeding its prescribed CSR budget of Rs 875 Cr for the year.
In the top 10 CSR spender list available on January 28, 2021, RIL is followed by Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Limited with their respective CSR spent of Rs 602 Cr and Rs 360 Cr. ITC Limited stands at fourth position with a total CSR spent of Rs 327 Cr.
Latest Update: HDFC Bank with a total CSR spent of Rs 535 Cr in the FY 2019-20 is likely to be get a position among top 5 spenders as the ‘Top Spenders’ list’ is updated in the publicly available Govt data. This updation is based on HDFC Bank’s CSR expenditure available in its annual report for the year 2019-20.
Though the list of Top 10 companies as per their CSR spent is likely to change once Ministry of Corporate Affairs includes data from more corporates, the organisations with CSR spent of more than Rs 300 Cr are expected to last in the elite list. For the year 2018-19, the corporates who had spent close to Rs 300 Cr and more had sealed a spot in the prestigious list.
Top 10 companies as per their CSR spent in 2019-20 and 2018–19
RIL consistently on Top:
The MCA data reveals that Reliance industry Limited has been consistently maintaining its top position in the list over last 6 years. Last year also the company had spent a total of Rs 849 Cr against a total prescribed CSR budget of Rs 811 Cr.
CSR spent by Reliance Industries over the years:
| Year | Prescribed Budget (In Rs Cr) | Actual CSR Spent (In Rs Cr) |
| 2014-15 | 761 | 533 |
| 2015-16 | 557.7 | 557.7 |
| 2016-17 | 620.41 | 659.2 |
| 2017-18 | 703.08 | 745.04 |
| 2018-19 | 811.16 | 849.32 |
| 2019-20 | 874.95 | 908.71 |
TCS, Infosys continue to be in top 10:
While the RIL remained on the top of this list, two IT companies - TCS and Infosys, have also been securing a place in the list of Top 10 companies as per the CSR spent. In the year 2018-19, the two IT giants were placed at no 5 and 6 respectively. In 2017-18, the two companies had bagged 3rd and 6th position. Further, the two companies continue to figure in the list of Top 10 ever since the Ministry of Corporate affairs started publishing the data on CSR spent.
Over last 5 years, ONGC and NTPC are only PSUs in top 10:
Interestingly, two Public Sector Unit (PSU) companies - Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) - also held their position in top 10 companies over the past five years. Though, the CSR data of the two companies for the year 2019-20 is yet to be published by MCA, their ranking in past shows an impressive CSR performance. In the year 2018-19, the two PSUs spent Rs 586 Cr and Rs 285 Cr respectively to secure 2nd and 10th place in the table. Previous to the year (in 2017-18), the two companies held 2nd and 8th position respectively among the top 10 companies.
