New Delhi, 12 December 2020: The media organisation Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (ZEEL) which boasts of India’s largest TV networks with channels under the brand name of Zee and the channels under the brands of Living Entertainment, Big and "&" and dozens of other channels, has miserably failed in its corporate social responsibility in the year 2019-20.
The company’s prescribed CSR budget for the year 2019-20 was close to Rs 48.6 Crore. However, it could spend only Rs 7 lakh on its CSR activities in the year. Ironically, the company boasts that its CSR spends are targeted towards long-term sustainable programs that actively contribute to and support the social and economic development of the society.
The CSR budget of a company for a particular year is calculated as 2 % of the average annual profit over last three financial year. According to ZEEL’s annual report, the average net profit of the Company for last three financial years stood at Rs 2,430 Cr. Accordingly, its CSR budget stood at Rs 48.6 Cr.
The company performed better than the industry average as its revenues grew at 10.7% CAGR over the past five years. This growth has been driven by improvement in our TV network share, digitization of pay-TV subscriber base and growth in revenues from new businesses.
Our Profit before Tax has grown at 9.7% CAGR over the past five years led by robust revenue growth and improving margins, the company noted in its annual report.
ZEEL appears non-performer as CSR budget piles up
The media company did not only disappoint in terms of its CSR activities this year, but it also further carried forward the unspent CSR budget that was piled up over the previous year.
"During the year under review, out of total CSR budget of Rs 880.90 Million (including unutilized CSR amount of Rs 394.8 Million carried forward from last year), the Company had contributed an aggregate of Rs 0.72 Million towards various CSR Projects," the company noted in its annual report.
As a result, as on March 31, 2020, an amount of Rs 880.18 million remained unutilized from ZEEL’s CSR budget.
A lame excuse
For its highly disappointing CSR activities, the company cited "non-availability of suitable CSR Projects" as the reason for not spending its CSR budget. It also held "certain operational delays" responsible for its weak CSR activities.
"As a consequence of the delays in implementation, the Company considered directing the implementation agency to redeploy the funds into other approved projects," the company noted.
It would be interesting to see if the company gets to spend its CSR funds and unspent budget in the year 2020-21 when the country needed corporate participation the most for relief activities during the though COVID times
The CSR Committee at the company comprises three Directors. Ashok Kurien, Non-Executive Director is the Chairman of the Committee while Piyush Pandey, Independent Director & Punit Goenka, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer are its Members.
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