'No proposal under consideration to use CSR funds for govt projects'
'CSR is a board driven process and the Board of the company is empowered to decide the activities to be undertaken as per Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 taking into consideration the recommendation of its CSR Committee', MoS for finance Anurag Singh Thakur said
NEW DELHI : Union minister Anurag Singh Thakur on Monday said there is no proposal under consideration to use CSR funds for government projects.
Under the companies law, certain class of profitable companies are required to shell out at least 2% of their three-year annual average net profit towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities in a particular fiscal.
To a query in the Lok Sabha on whether the government is also considering to divert CSR funds for government projects, the minister replied in the negative.
"No such proposal is under consideration of the government. CSR is a board driven process and the Board of the company is empowered to decide the activities to be undertaken as per Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 taking into consideration the recommendation of its CSR committee," Thakur said in a written reply.
He is the Minister of State for Finance as well as Corporate Affairs.
In another written reply, Thakur said there is no provision of geo-tagging under the CSR provisions of the Companies Act, 2013 and rules made thereunder.
"As per inputs provided by Ministry of Rural Development, all assets created under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) are geo-tagged under Geo-MGNREGA initiative. As on date, more than 4.32 crore number of assets have been geo-tagged under MGNREGS.
"The geo-tagged assets data under MGNREGS is available on Bhuvan Portal of National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), ISRO in public domain," the minister said.
He was responding to a question on whether the assets created under MGNREGA are geo-tagged.
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