Government to come out with ‘forward looking' CSR spend guidelines

Flexible CSR spend norms soon

Bombay Chamber President-elect and MD Forbes & Co Ashok Barat (left)
along with Department of Corporate Affairs Secretary D. K. Mittal
(centre) and Novartis India Country President Ranjit Shahani at a
seminar in Mumbai on Monday. Photo: Paul Noronha In what could be
termed as a relief for India Inc, a top government official on Monday
said the government did not wish to make corporate social
responsibility (CSR) spend mandatory, but would instead come out with
'flexible', 'directional' guidelines.

"There is no way the government wants to mandate it. If we make it
mandatory there can be thousand and one ways to bypass it," Corporate
Affairs Secretary D. K. Mittal said at a meeting organized by the
Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry on CSR, here. The government
would come out with 'forward looking' CSR spend guidelines, he said,
adding, "It will be only directional and not mandatory. We want it to
be flexible. But once the new norms are in, firms will have to
disclose their CSR spends or non-spending."

more from MUMBAI, June 14, 2011 ::::::::::PTI …from the pages of THE
HINDU and THE HINDU BUSINESS LILNE newspaper.