The second wave of Covid-19 pandemic has re-emphasised the importance of CSR spending. Recently, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has also notified amendments to Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 and the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility) Rules, 2014, effective from 22 January 2021 and also issued certain clarifications in the form of General Circulars.
The amendments have changed the approach from ‘spend or explain’ to ‘spend or transfer’. In addition to this, there are newer concepts like ongoing projects, administrative overheads and limit thereon, adoption of annual action plan, certification by CFOs about the utilisation of CSR funds, reporting, conducting impact assessment study, consequences of non-compliances, etc.
The amendments broadly cover all aspects of CSR lifecycle from designing to implementation, reporting to final assessment of the impact on the society.
The MCA has been pragmatic in amending CSR to achieve a larger public interest particularly to deal with the situations like Covid -19 pandemic. The laws relating to charitable trusts/ foundations, Income-tax, GST, etc., have not so far made any corresponding enabling provisions/ framework dealing with CSR.
This webinar will focus on
- Analysing the implications of these amendments and various related issues under Company Law.
- Implications of CSR expenditure under Tax laws (Income-tax and GST)
Speakers:
- Sudish Sharma, Executive Partner, L&S
- S Vasudevan, Executive Partner, L&S
- Noorul Hassan, Partner, L&S
- Shivam Mehta, Partner, L&S