When a Company gets registered in India, be it an Indian Company whether Public Company (listed or unlisted) or a Private Company or even a Foreign Company having place of business in India, it is allotted with an Unique 21 digit identification number known as ‘Corporate Identity Number’ in short ‘CIN’.

Here is an example of CIN Number :

Once you enter CIN of your company and move to next filed (By Pressing TAB) accordingly your company name will populate from database.

CSR Spending Sectors are having list of Sectors which can be selected by Company for CSR.

There are two sections :

• Directly by the Company

If Company decided to do CSR Spending "Directly by the Company” then Company has to select CSR Spending Sectors (Any of the sector from "Thrust Areas to Start with” OR choose from "All Sectors as per Schedule VII” – However Company can select sectors from both and enter Proposed CSR Spending Amount accordingly)

• Through the GCSRA

If Company decided to do CSR Spending Through GCSRA then Company has to choose sectors only from Thrust Areas to Start with and enter Proposed CSR Spending Amount accordingly.

However Company can select multiple sectors and set priority by using Up/Down key.

e.g. by using up/down key user can change the priorities as shown in above image example.

Once User will click on any above link then system will redirect user to Company Login page.

Once user will enter the registered Username and Password then then system display the Dashboard of that User.

In that Dashboard once user will click on the Profile icon then he will be able to find his Company profile with Preferred Sector he has selected.

Now if user wants to change his Registered Office address then he needs to click on the icon which located just right of Registered Office Text.

Once user will click on that icon then system will allow him to Edit particular Registered Office related information.

By this way user can change the other Details like :

• Address of office in Gujarat
• Details of the Contact Person
• CSR Project related Detail like Name of Chairman, Preferred location for CSR & Amount that he wants to contribute.

He can also change the Preferred Sector by clicking on the Edit icon located just right side of Preferred Sector Heading

Corporate Social Responsibility ("CSR") means the responsibility of an organization, inter alia, towards the society and the environment, through activities that contribute to sustainable development, health, safety and welfare of society taking into account the expectations of the stakeholders.

The Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy) Rules, 2014, as amended from time to time ("CSR Rules") framed under the Companies Act, 2013, as amended from time to time (the "Act"), defines CSR to include:

• Projects or programs relating to activities specified in Schedule VII of the Act; or
• Projects or programs relating to activities undertaken by a company in pursuance of its CSR Policy (as recommended by the company's CSR Committee).

The CSR provisions (i.e. Section 135 read with Schedule VII of the Act and the CSR Rules) have been notified by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on February 27, 2014. The aforesaid CSR provisions have come into effect from the April 1, 2014.

CSR provisions are applicable to every company (i.e. company incorporated under the Act or under any previous company law), including its holding or subsidiary, and a foreign company defined under Section 2(42) of the Act having its branch office or project office in India, having

• Net worth of INR 500 crore or more; or
• An annual turnover of INR 1000 crore or more; or
• A net profit of INR 5 crore or more during any financial year.

Separately, pursuant to the guidelines issued by the Department of Public Enterprises, all profit making Central Public Sector Enterprises are required to undertake CSR activities, even though they may not be covered under the aforesaid threshold limits of net-worth, turnover or net profit as specified under the Act.

Any company meeting the aforesaid limit(s) is required to constitute a CSR committee ("CSR Committee") of its board of directors ("Board"). If a company fails to constitute CSR Committee, the company and every officer of the company who is in default will be punishable with fine which may extend to INR 10,000 and in case of a continuing offence, with a further fine extending to INR 1,000 for every day of default.

Any company meeting any one of the criteria specified in sl. no. 3 above during any of the three preceding financial years (i.e. 2011-2012, 2012-2013 and 2013-2014) is required to constitute a CSR Committee with effect from April 1, 2014 (i.e the date on which CSR provisions have come into effect).

The CSR Committee should consist of 3 or more directors, with atleast 1 of them being an independent director.

An unlisted public company or a private company which is not required to appoint an independent director under the Act may have its CSR Committee without such independent director. A private company having only 2 directors on its Board can constitute its CSR Committee with only 2 such directors. A foreign company to which CSR provisions are applicable, may constitute the CSR Committee comprising of at least 2 persons of which 1 person should be a person resident in India and authorized to accept notices on behalf of such foreign company.

The CSR Committee is required to:

• Formulate and recommend to the Board a CSR policy ("CSR Policy") which should indicate the CSR activities to be undertaken by the company as specified in Schedule VII of the Act;
• Recommend the amount of expenditure to be incurred on the CSR activities; and
• Monitor the CSR Policy of the company from time to time.

The CSR Policy of the company should, inter alia, include the following:

• A list of CSR projects or programs which a company plans to undertake falling within the purview of the Schedule VII of the Act, specifying modalities of execution of such project or programs and implementation schedules for the same; and
• Monitoring process of such projects or programs;

The company should give preference to the local area and areas around it where it operates, for spending the amount earmarked for CSR activities.

The Board of the company should ensure that the company spends in every financial year, at least 2% of the average net profits made during the 3 immediately preceding financial years on CSR activities ("CSR Amount").

As per the provisions of section 135 of the Act, one of the three criteria has to be satisfied to attract section 135. Therefore, if a company satisfies the criterion of turnover, although it does not satisfy the criterion of net profit, it is required to comply with the provisions of section 135 and the CSR Rules. But since there are no profits, the company may not spend any amount but explain the reasons for not spending the amount in its Board's report.

If the company fails to spend the CSR Amount the Board has to specify the reasons for not spending such amount in its report in compliance with CSR provisions.

In case the Board does not disclose the reasons in the Board's report, then the company will be punishable with fine which will not be less than INR 50,000 but which may extend to INR 25 lakhs and every officer of the company who is in default will be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 3 years or with fine which will not be less than INR 50,000 but which may extend to INR 5 lakhs, or with both.

"Net Profit" means the net profit of a company as per its financial statement prepared in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Act, but will not include the following, namely:

• Any profit arising from any overseas branch or branches of the company, whether operated as a separate company or otherwise; and
• Any dividend received from other companies in India, which are covered under and complying with the provisions of Section 135 of the Act.

Further, in case of a foreign company covered under the CSR Rules, net profit means the net profit of such company as per profit and loss account prepared in terms of Section 381(1)(a) read with Section 198 of the Act.

The net profit computed as above is 'before tax'.

A company can conduct its CSR activities through a registered society or trust or a Section 8 company under the Act. In this regard, the CSR Rules have liberalized the participation of a third party to undertake CSR activities on behalf of the company provided it fulfills the relevant track record of 3 years in undertaking similar projects or programs. Such an entity would have to follow the specifications and modalities regarding utilization of funds, monitoring and reporting requirements as provided by the company.

A company can conduct its CSR activities through its own or holding or subsidiary or associate company's registered society or trust or Section 8 company. Such group entity(ies) is not required to fulfill the criteria of relevant track record of 3 years as mentioned in sl. no. 15 above.

A company can conduct its CSR activities in collaboration with other companies for undertaking CSR projects or programs subject to the condition that the collaborating companies are in a position to report separately as per the reporting requirements under the Act.

This mode is particularly important for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to whereby they can pool their resources for conducting CSR activities.

The primary responsibility to comply with the CSR provisions remains with the company. After a company has contributed the CSR Amount, it has to ensure that the entity to whom the CSR Amount has been given follows the specifications and modalities regarding utilization of funds and the monitoring & reporting requirements, as specified by it.

Schedule VII of the Act includes the following activities:

• Eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, promoting health care including preventive health care and sanitation and making available safe drinking water;
• Promoting education, including special education and employment enhancing vocation skills especially among children, women, elderly, and the differently abled and livelihood enhancement projects;
• Promoting gender equality, empowering women, setting up homes and hostels for women and orphans; setting up old age homes, day care centres and such other facilities for senior citizens and measures for reducing inequalities faced by socially and economically backward groups;
• Ensuring environmental sustainability, ecological balance, protection of flora and fauna, animal welfare, agroforestry, conservation of natural resources and maintaining quality of soil, air and water;
• Protection of national heritage, alt and culture including restoration of buildings and sites of historical importance and works of art; setting up public libraries; promotion and development of traditional arts and handicrafts;
• Measures for the benefit of armed forces veterans, war widows and their dependents;
• Training to promote rural sports, nationally recognized sports, paralympic sports and Olympic sports;
• Contribution to the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund or any other fund set up by the Central Government for socio-economic development and relief and welfare of the Schedulcd Caste, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women;
• Contributions or funds provided to technology incubators located within academic institutions which are approved by the Central Government;
• Rural development projects;
• Slum area development;
  
  For the purposes of this item, the term 'slum area' shall mean any area declared as such by the Central Government or any State Government or any other competent authority under any law for the time being in force." This notification shall come into force on the date of its publication in the Official Gazette.
• Contribution to the Swatch Bharat Kosha set up by the Central Government for the promotion of sanitation and the Clean Ganga Fund set up by the Central Govt. for rejuvenating of the river Ganga.

No. Contribution of any amount directly or indirectly to any political party under Section 182 of the Act, will not be considered as CSR activity.

An expenditure incurred on specified activities stipulated in Schedule VII of the Act will only qualify as CSR expenditure. Such expenditure includes contribution to the corpus or on projects or programs relating to CSR activities. Any expenditure on an activity falling outside the purview of Schedule VII of the Act will not qualify as CSR expenditure.

Further, the CSR projects or programs or activities undertaken in India only will be considered towards CSR expenditure.

Any expenditure on an activity falling outside the purview of Schedule VII of the Act will not qualify as CSR expenditure. Specifically, any expenditure on the following activities do not constitute CSR expenditure:

• One-off events such as marathons/ awards/ charitable contribution/ advertisement/ sponsorships of TV programmes, etc;
• Expenses incurred for fulfilling the requirements of any statute/ law, such as labour laws, land acquisition act, etc.

Yes. Expenditure incurred by a foreign holding company for CSR activities in India will qualify as CSR spend of the Indian subsidiary if the CSR expenditures are routed through the Indian subsidiaries.

No. The amount spent by a company towards CSR cannot be claimed as business expenditure.

Yes. Companies may build CSR capacities of their own personnel and their implementing agencies but expenditure on building such capacities, including expenditure on administrative overheads, should not exceed 5% of total CSR expenditure of the company in one financial year.

The CSR Rules provide that the CSR policy of the company should specify that the surplus arising out of CSR activities shall not form part of the business profits of the company. Ideally, such surplus should be rolled over to CSR corpus.

The Board's report (of a company covered under CSR provisions) pertaining to a financial year commencing on or after the April 1, 2014 should include an annual report on CSR containing particulars specified in Annexure attached to the CSR Rules. In case of a foreign company, the balance sheet filed under Section 381(1)(b) of the Act should contain an Annexure attached to the CSR Rules regarding report on CSR.

Separately, top 100 listed companies (based on market capitalisation at BSE and NSE as on March 31, 2012) have to mandatorily file a "Business Responsibility Report", as part of their annual report, with the stock exchange on which their shares are listed.

The Board of the company must, after taking into account the recommendations of CSR Committee, approve the CSR Policy for the company and disclose contents of such policy in its report and the same is also required to be displayed on the company's website, if any, as per the particulars specified in the Annexure attached to the CSR Rules.

Yes. The GoG has set-up an authority by the name of "Gujarat CSR Authority" ("Authority") under the administrative control of Industries and Mines Department, for the purpose of managing CSR Funds and also for coordinating, monitoring and implementing the various CSR activities in the State of Gujarat, including creation of an appropriate web portal.

The GoG has also established the CSR Advisory Board for the purpose of reviewing the CSR activities in the State and providing necessary guidance and advice to the Authority. The Chairperson of the CSR Advisory Board is the Hon'ble Chief Minister of the State of Gujarat.

The Authority will, from time to time, carve out the thrust areas for CSR activities in accordance with Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013.

The Authority has been set-up to catalyse sustainable growth by creating an enabling environment for the corporate sector to work in partnership with the Government. It provides a neutral and credible platform to all stakeholders engaged in CSR best practices for capturing relevant issues to foster sustainable growth and to implement various CSR projects of State importance through credible implementing agencies in that area, in accordance with the Act.

Any company desirous of getting its CSR obligations done through the Authority may visit the Authority's website and register for the same or write directly to the Authority at the following address:

3rd Floor, GSFC,
Drive in Road,
Nr. Reliance Mart,
Bodakdev,
Ahmedabad,
380054

Any company desirous of getting its CSR obligations done through the Authority can deposit the funds earmarked for CSR spending into the designated bank account of the Authority. Alternatively, a company may also deposit a cheque/ demand draft, etc., at the address of the Authority.

The Authority will facilitate the company contributing CSR Amount to the Authority in complying with its CSR obligations. Further, the authority will be the lead agency for ensuring that the CSR Amount is utilized for the activities as indicated by the company contributing such funds to the Authority.

Yes. Any company contributing funds towards its CSR spending to the Authority will get a written acknowledgment/ letter of appreciation from the Authority signifying the contribution made. The company can use this acknowledgement for filing the necessary reports as mandated under the Act.

Yes. The Authority will maintain separate accounts for every company contributing the CSR Amount to the Authority and will provide to every companya statement of accounts giving details of the funds utilised by the Authority towards the activities indicated by the company.