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Central Government notifies Companies (CSR) Rules, 2021

22.01.2021

The Central Government amends the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014. These rules may be called the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Amendment Rules, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)" generally means as corporate initiative to assess and take responsibility for the Company's effects on the environment and impact on social welfare. In the year 2014, Government of India notified Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 along with Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014 and other related notifications which make it mandatory for certain Companies who fulfill the criteria as mentioned under Sub Section 1 of Section 135 to comply with the provisions relevant to Corporate Social Responsibility.

As per new Rules, every entity, covered who intends to undertake any CSR activity, shall register itself with the Central Government by filing the form CSR-1 electronically with the Registrar, with effect from the 01st day of April 2021. However, the provisions shall not affect the CSR projects or programmes approved prior to the 1st day of April 2021. Form CSR-1 shall be signed and submitted electronically by the entity and shall be verified digitally by a Chartered Accountant in practice or a Company Secretary in practice or a Cost Accountant in practice. On the submission of the Form CSR-1 on the portal, a unique CSR Registration Number shall be generated by the system automatically.

A company may engage international organisations for designing, monitoring and evaluation of the CSR projects or programmes as per its CSR policy. The Board of a company shall satisfy itself that, the funds so disbursed have been utilised for the purposes and in the manner as approved by it. The Board of Directors of the Company shall mandatorily disclose the composition of the CSR Committee, and CSR Policy and Projects approved by the Board on their website for public access.

Further, the board shall ensure that, the administrative overheads shall not exceed five percent of total CSR expenditure of the Company for the financial year. Any surplus arising out of the CSR activities shall not form part of the business profit of a Company and shall be ploughed back into the same project or shall be transferred to the Unspent CSR Account and spent in pursuance of CSR policy and annual action plan of the company.

Tags : Social Responsibility Rules Amendment

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