CSR expenditure increases 11% to Rs 10,030 crore in FY18
New Delhi   29-Nov-2018

India Inc’s social spending crossed Rs 10,000 crore last year, led by Reliance Industries and Oil & Natural Gas Corporation. Spending on corporate social responsibility projects increased 11% to Rs 10,030 crore in 2017-18, according to an analysis of 1,080 of 1,795 companies listed on the National Stock Exchange by PRIME Database Group. “CSR expenditure by NSE-listed companies has grown at a healthy CAGR of 16% over the last three years,” said Pranav Haldea, managing director of PRIME Database Group. The number of companies that spent on CSR increased to 1,016 (94% of the companies analysed) in 2017-18 from 931 (92%) in 2016-17. The top 10 companies together accounted for 36% of the total spending on CSR. The top spenders in terms of absolute CSR expenditure were Reliance Industries, ONGCNSE -2.31 %, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC BankNSE 0.97 %, Indian Oil Corp, InfosysNSE 0.71 %, ITCNSE 1.70 %, NTPCNSE -0.80 %, Tata Steel and Wipro.

Overall, 560 companies, or 59%, increased their spending from the previous year. However, contributions to two government focus areas fell. Spending on Swachh Bharat declined 10% to Rs 521 crore, while funding for the Clean Ganga project dropped 47% to Rs 80 crore, data showed. The highest contribution towards Swachh Bharat was in 2015-16, at Rs 1,009 crore. As in the previous year, education received the most funding (38% of the total), followed by healthcare (25%). Spending was small in areas such as reducing inequalities (2%), national heritage (4%), armed forces (1%), sports (2%) and the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund (2%). However, in comparison to the previous year, these areas saw the highest percentage increase in spending, with the PM’s fund attracting the biggest rise of 139%. Allocations as a proportion of the total under various schedules remained fairly constant over the previous year, said Haldea.