BATHINDA: Punjab might be doing reasonably well on UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs) with a score of 68 with two notches above national average of 66 and ranks 12th on Niti Aayog’s SDG index, but when it comes to corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending, the state is getting even less than 1% (.68% to be precise) of the total funds, placing it at 17th spot in the country.
As against Rs 92,605 crore funds generated under CSR in India in the past six years since April 1, 2014, when the move was initiated, Punjab got only Rs 631 crore, or just .68% of the total funds, under CSR. The report was released on Monday by Punjab CSR Authority head Sandeep Goyal with data collected by Sattva Consulting, a social impact research, strategy advisory and implementation firm. Punjab chief secretary Vini Mahajan released the report in a virtual programme where principal secretary Hussan Lal, Rakesh Bharti and HPCL MD Prabh Dass participated.
Education, health care and environment & sustainability are the core sector which got the biggest pie of the funds while the oil, gas, coal and petroleum, telecom and automotive industries contributed maximum. The companies have to contribute 2% of the average net profit in last three years. As per the report, Rs 631 crore of CSR funds cumulatively have been invested for social development projects in Punjab in the past six years. While 26% of the funds has been spent towards education, 21% has been spent on healthcare and15% towards environment and sustainability. This is in line with the broader national trend of these three sectors being the top areas of investment by corporates, cumulatively accounting for 55% nationally, against 63% in Punjab.
Out of total of Rs 631 crore, Punjab received Rs 341 crore of CSR funding in the last two years, accounting for 54% of the total CSR funds in these two years. The top four spending companies – HPCL Mittal Limited, Trident Limited, International Tractors Limited and Bharti Infratel Limited – have contributed 25% of the total CSR spend that the state has received over the years. Oil, gas, coal and petroleum and telecom are the highest contributing sectors, providing 22% and 8% funds, respectively. Punjab had 29,761 registered companies (1.67% of India) by 2018 and 365 (1.18%) participated in CSR in last six years.
