Badrul Ahsan :
The government is set to bring changes in the proposed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) guidelines with a view to paving the ways for spending the money for the real beneficiaries, sources said.
The Ministry of Finance, to this effect, has recently requested all ministries and departments to send their respective suggestions on the draft CSR guidelines.
The Ministry of Commerce (MoC), in their suggestions, has proposed some changes in the CSR guidelines. The changes include slashing of a company’s three-year net profit to 0.50 per cent from two per cent for spending on CSR purposes.
Besides, the Ministry also suggested spending of money only for real beneficiaries which will not create any opportunity for giving the company profit.
Section V of the draft guidelines suggests expenditure of two per cent of net profits of last three years of the company for CSR purposes.
The MoC suggests that it should be slashed to 0.50 per cent from the proposed two per cent.
The MoC sent its suggestions to the MoF recently on 11 sections of the draft CSR guidelines. The Section 1 of the draft guidelines proposes to make CSR ‘compulsory’. Regarding the section, the MoC suggested considering different optional socio-economic development and social welfare activities by different organisations as ‘CSR activities’ apart from other legally binding ones. However, Section 5 of the draft guidelines proposes “Affordability-CSR”. The MoC suggested exclusion of these words as it might give a chance to any company to avoid CSR activities citing its inability to spend money in this account.
The Section IX of the draft guidelines suggests submission of a report on CSR activities along with the annual report to the company’s board meeting and also sending a copy of CSR report to the Ministry concerned. About the Section, the MoC agreed to the draft guidelines, and it proposed that all the reports related to CSR of a company should be uploaded on the company’s webpage.
The Section XI of the guidelines suggests formation of a National Council comprising government, business bodies, civil society and professional bodies to review and recommend on CSR activities.
There will be at least two meetings of the Council in a year.
About the clause, the MoC suggested appointment and inclusion of a ‘National Contact Point’ who will coordinate on global conventions, guidelines and best management practices and send the council’s recommendations to the respective company.
The MoC observed that the CSR Committee alone can oversee financial expenditure. “We will finalise the guidelines after getting suggestions from some other ministries and departments,” a high official of the MoF told The New Nation.
