The notification was brought in to make PM CARES fund eligible to receive CSR funding. It will be implemented with a retrospective effect and shall deem to have come into force on March 28.
New Delhi, May 27:
The Narendra Modi government has brought in a Gazette notification that will allow the PM CARES fund to receive Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funding from corporates.
The notification, brought in by the Union Ministry of Corporate Affairs on May 26, states that sub-section (1) of section 467 of the Companies Act, 2013 has been amended to also make PM CARES fund (Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Funds) eligible to receive CSR funding from corporates.
So far, only the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund was eligible to receive CSR funding.
“In Schedule VII, item (viii), after the words ‘Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund’, the words ‘or Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund)’ shall be inserted,” the notification states.
Besides this, the notification says it will be implemented with a retrospective effect and shall deem to have come into force on March 28.
In other words, the donations that were made by big corporates to the PM CARES over the last couple of months can be covered as CSR contributions.
Till now Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) was mandatory for:
Companies with a net worth of Rs 500 crores or greater, or
Companies with a turnover of Rs 1,000 crores or greater, or
Companies with a net profit of Rs 5 crore or greater.
Companies could utilise the funds set aside for CSR in broad categories of programmes stipulated by the government to ensure their accountability. These were:
Eradicating extreme hunger and poverty
Promotion of education
Promoting gender equality and empowering women
Reducing child mortality
Improving maternal health
Combating human immunodeficiency virus, acquired, immune deficiency syndrome, malaria and other diseases
Ensuring environmental sustainability,
Employment enhancing vocational skills, social business projects
Contribution to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund or any other fund set up by the Central Government or the State Governments for socio-economic development, and
Relief and funds for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women and such other matters as may be prescribed.
Through the new gazette notification, the government has added PM CARES fund as an eligible beneficiary of CSR funds.
