The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry under the leadership of the CSR Committee is organized a Webinar on Friday, 30th April 2020 from 4pm to 5.30 pm, and discussed on the Draft CSR Amendments Rules 2020 as issued by The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, and also on the Covid-19 fund utilization mandate by the Corporates.

ABOUT THE WEBINAR:
The Webinar Panel consisted of eminent representatives from the Industries and NGO professionals. Confirmed Industry Representation is from Exide Industry Limited, SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited, CESC Limited along with few more industry stalwarts. The discussion highlighted on the pertinent topics of the current draft CSR Amendment Rules 2020 which are currently under comment phase from the industry and has concern over issues like the Board Rules and Responsibilities, Role of Implementation Agencies, Yearly Impact Assessments, Reporting System etc and also Covid-19 fund utilization along with the Way Forward to cope up with this current situation.

The speakers were as follows:
▪  Mr Jitendra Kumar - Chairman, CSR Committee, The Bengal Chamber
▪  Dr Neepa Saha Sharma Head . CSR, CESC Limited
▪  Mr. Dhruv Bhalla, Senior V ice President and Head International Relations, Corporate Strategy and Planning, SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited
▪  Mr. Rajesh Mishra, EVP, Strategy & Corporate Services, Tata Metaliks Limited.
▪  CS Deepak Kumar Khaitan, Practicing Company Secretary, Deepak Khaitan & Co
▪  Dr. Swati Chakraborty, Assistant Director, CINI-Kolkata
The session was moderated by Mr. Sumit Dasgupta, Founder and Director Allcap Communications Pvt. Ltd

Mr. Jitendra Kumar spoke on the increased responsibilities and obligations of the Board and retaining of the CSR Committee as a recommending body according to the draft CSR amendment Rules 2020. He also spoke on the impact on the entire planning, implementation and monitoring of the CSR projects for organisations. Mr.Kumar shared his opinion on what should be the way forward for the next 2 years with the CSR funds for organizations to cope up with the current COVID-19 situations?

Mr. Dhruv Bhalla, spoke on his views on the draft CSR Amendment Rules 2020 and the proposal that CSR may include activities having less than 25% employees as its beneficiary. He shared his views on the fact that if this comes to effect, how do you think organisations will make decisions on the beneficiary group amongst the employees? How do you think this will impact the organisation's overall employee engagement?

According to the latest CSR FAQ in April 2020 'Chief Minister's Relief Fund' or 'State Relief Fund for COVID-19' is not included in Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 and therefore any contribution to such funds shall not qualify as admissible CSR expenditure. So he addressed, how would organisations who have already contributed to the CM/State funds and states, who have received funds and utilized get impacted from such a mandate? What could be a viable resolution to this?

Mr Rajesh Mishra, spoke on Topic covering the asset creation mentioned as under regulation 7(3) i.e. consequences of the proposed spent by a company for creation or acquisition of assets which shall only be held by a company established under section 8 of the Act having charitable objects or a public authority. He also commented on if making the CSR project list reporting on the website is a mandate according to the draft rules? What impact does this have on the day to day project implementation and management by the organisation?

Mr. Deepak Kumar Khaitan spoke on his views on the point that the draft also mentions that a company having the obligation of spending average CSR amount of Rs 5 Crore or more in the three immediately preceding financial years in pursuance of sub section 5 of Section 135 of the Act, shall undertake impact assessment for their CSR projects or programmes, and shall disclose details of the same in its Annual Report on CSR.. For long term projects doing impact assessment every year does not seem to be a viable proposition since impacts generation takes considerable amount of time Impact existence of small NGOs/Trusts. He also spoke on the impact existence of small NGOs/Trusts.

Dr Swati Chakraborty explained that according to the CSR Amendment Rules 2020 the Board shall ensure that the CSR activities are undertaken by the company itself or through (a) a company established under section 8 of the Act, or (b) any entity established under an Act of Parliament or a State legislature registered with the central government for undertaking any CSR activity. How will this clause impact the projects with NGOs?