Odisha Govt to form State Council for CSR Fund Utilisation
Odisha Government has put on table the proposal for institutionalization of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibilities) activities in the State for making those more comprehensive, useful and sustainable.
A high level meeting to this effect was held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sri Aditya Prasad Padhi in secretariat conference hall on Friday wherein the Principal Secretary Industry Sri Sanjeeb Chopra outlined the issues for discussion and placed the need for institutionalization of CSR activities.
Considering the proposal, Chief Secretary Sri Aditya Padhi advised to form one state level council as a facilitating agency to help the CSR planning of the corporate houses line with development needs of the State. The representatives of corporate houses, industry associations and chamber of Indian industries present in the meeting welcome the proposal. They maintained that such an effort would be more useful both for corporate houses and the people.
Presenting the proposal, Principal Secretary Industry Sri Chopra added that the proposed state council would only facilitate the CSR spending by the companies and help them report on developmental outcomes. Such coordinated approach would lead to target oriented utilization of the CSR funds. The cell has been proposed to he set up in IPICOl with its steering committees both at State and District levels. It may be pertinent here to mention that as per the existing provisions of the law, Companies with net worth of Rs. 500 crore or more or turnover of Rs. 1,000 crore or more or with net profit of Rs. 5 crore or more have to spend at least 2% of their average net profit on CSR activities. Each such company constitutes a CSR committee of the Board.
Formation of a State Council would facilitate each of these committees and guide them in more fruitful spending of CSR funds. Reports of the corporate houses show during the financial year 2014-15 around 287 corporate houses have spent near about 344.12 cr as CSR fund in various activities. Out of this amount around 96.15 cr has been spent on infrastructure development, 71.93 cr has been spent on education, 51.23 cr on health, 40.57 cr on environmental protection, 29.06 cr on livelihood promotion, 11.55 cr on vocational training, 44.16 cr on other CSR activities. Around 90% of the funds have been spent only in 10 districts.
CSR activities are also unsystematically spread across districts and various sectors of development. The members present in the meeting agreed that formation of a State Council would help in spending this fund more intelligently across the areas and sectors. Principal Secretary Steel & Mines Sri Raj Kumar Sharma, Special Secretary General Administration Sri Ashok Meena, Secretary Panchayati Raj Sri Deo Ranjan Kumar Singh, representatives from large corporate houses, Industries, Utkal Chamber of Commerce, Chamber of Indian Industries, Industry associations along with senior officers from Industry and IPICOL participated in deliberations.