CII calls for lifting of curbs, offers 1% extra CSR for jabs
NEW DELHI: Indian industry has urged the government to curb social gatherings in pandemicaffected areas but to keep economic activities out of Covid restrictions, and offered an additional 1% contribution under corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds for a year as an aid to the 2022-23 Budget, specifically to fund booster doses of the vaccine.
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) president TV Narendran said Indian industry is keen to contribute to the world’s most ambitious vaccination mission.“CII suggests that 1% of mandated CSR funds be earmarked for vaccination. We also recommend that an additional 1% be added to CSR requirements in the Budget, for a specified period of 12 months, so that boosters can be made available to all age-groups.”
Companies are ready to contribute an additional 1% under CSR norms to the national vaccination mission, apart from the mandated 2%, and this can be part of the Budget for a period of 12 months, he explained in a statement.
CII is an apex industry body with over 9,000 members from private as public sectors, and also has an indirect membership of over 300,000 enterprises from 294 national and regional sectoral industry bodies.
CSR is mandatory for entities incorporated under the Companies Act, which says firms with a net worth of at least ₹500 crore or revenue of ₹1,000 crore or net profit of ₹5 crore must spend at least 2% of their average net profit made during the three preceding financial years on welfare activities. The CSR spend in 2019-20 was about ₹24,700 crore, with Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, and state-run Oil and Natural gas Corp (ONGC) being top three contributors.
“In fact, our recommendation has been that if companies spend on vaccines for their employees, their families and members of the community, then that expense can be set-off against this additional CSR spend,” said Narendran, who is also CEO & managing director of Tata Steel Ltd.
The 2% mandatory CSR is the minimum requirement; companies can spend more if they wish to, a government expert said requesting anonymity. “There are many companies who spend more than 2% on CSR. Besides, the law allows companies to front-load their CSR spend in one year and take offset in the next two years,” he added.
‘Lift restrictions’
The CII president also urged states to lift restrictions on economic activities given that the occupancy rate of hospital beds due to the Omicron variant of Covid is well within the manageable level.
“While vaccinations have helped in dampening the impact of Omicron on the lives of people, the present conditions are conducive to opening up the economy completely while keeping large social gatherings to a minimum,” Narendran said.
According to a dashboard maintained by HT, on Sunday, 86.7% of Covid-19 hospital beds across 13 regions were vacant.
“With a bounce back in demand, the economy is expected to achieve 9.2% growth rate over 2021-22.
However, this pace must continue for full recovery and faster growth in the medium term and to ensure that workers and small enterprises do not suffer,” he added.
A similar demand for a rollback of restrictions in the national capital was also made by market and trader associations, HT reported on Sunday.