Spending on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India has crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore milestone, just seven years after it was made mandatory, a CRISIL analysis shows.

As much as 40% of this is estimated to have been incurred in the past two fiscals as companies rolled up their sleeves to fight the Covid-19 pandemic that set in towards the fag-end of fiscal 2020.

Our estimation, based on data disclosed in annual reports, pegs overall CSR spending in fiscal 2020 at Rs 21,231 crore, with 1,387 listed companies accounting for ~Rs 14,431 crore (~26% more than in fiscal 2019), and 19,962 unlisted ones Rs 6,800 crore (~7% less than in fiscal 2019).

In fiscal 2021, again, assuming the spend was around the mandated mark of 2% of average profit of the preceding three fiscals, eligible companies would have spent ~Rs 22,000 crore on CSR, including Rs 14,986 crore by more than 1,700 listed ones and ~Rs 7,072 crore by unlisted entities.

While the actual spending for the two fiscals can be corroborated only once annual reports for last fiscal become available and are analysed in coming months, one trend is clear: Covid-19 has gobbled up a chunk of the money.

We undertook two separate exercises to say this with certainty, based on data sourced from company websites, public disclosures and articles/ features on reliable websites, including those of top newspapers, business magazines and financial portals.

In the first exercise, we took the top 500 companies by CSR spending in fiscal 2020 and calculated their expenditure on Covid-19 relief since March 23, 2020, when it became eligible for CSR calculation¹. This showed them spending ~Rs 11,000 crore, as of June 2021.

For the second exercise, we considered the top 100 companies by revenue and by CSR spending in fiscal 2020. Of these 200, 70 companies appeared in both the lists, while 60 appeared in only one, leaving 130 unique companies. These 130 have spent ~Rs 8,500 crore (including support through corporate groups²) on Covid-19, across the two waves, as of June 2021.

Says Maya Vengurlekar, Chief Operating Officer, CRISIL Foundation, “The successive waves of Covid-19 have been a litmus test of corporate altruism – with companies having to balance employee well-being initiatives, business imperatives and their social contract. Given the expectations of a third wave, the probability of diverting more funds during this fiscal seems imminent. Thus, it remains to be seen how long the momentum holds.”

For now, it is heartening to see that spending and reporting on CSR has continued to improve.

In fiscal 2020, the number of companies and their cumulative spending printed higher yet again, with over two-thirds of the eligible listed ones spending 2% or more of their net profits on CSR initiatives, and ~10% spending 3% or more.

Among sectors, manufacturing, energy and financial services accounted for over 60% of the spending. Public sector companies (accounting for ~7% of the total eligible companies) contributed ~32% of the total CSR spending, while private ones (accounting for 87% of total eligible companies) spent ~63%. In both, around two-thirds met the mandate of spending 2% or more of their net profits for the preceding three fiscals. Also, in keeping with recent trends, most companies preferred to implement their CSR mandate through non-government organisations or trusts.

Most of the money (53% of total CSR spending) continued to flow towards education and skill development, and healthcare and sanitation, while rural development got 9%. Yet the cumulative spending into these three sectors was down to ~61% in fiscal 2020 from ~75% in fiscal 2019, as the pandemic spawned a change in priorities. And in fiscal 2021, the share of pandemic-related CSR spending is estimated to have climbed to 62%, leaving little for other causes.

Says Nitesh Jain, Director, CRISIL Ratings, “More changes may be in order this fiscal as new rules proposed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs have kicked in from April, 2021. In its notifications, apart from key CSR rules, the ministry has also urged India Inc to support Covid-19 relief work, and awareness and vaccinations drives as part of their ongoing CSR mandate."

¹ https://www.mca.gov.in/Ministry/pdf/Covid_23032020.pdf
² Refers to consolidated donations which have been made at a corporate group/entity level