Oil firms didn’t spend two percent of profits on CSR

By IANS,

New Delhi : India’s state-owned oil companies did not meet their target of spending two percent of their profits on corporate social responsibility (CSR), Petroleum Minister Murli Deora admitted Tuesday but said they would be asked to do so in the new fiscal year.


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“We will try and spend two percent,” Deora said during question hour in the Rajya Sabha when asked why the oil companies had spent only 0.7-1 percent of their profits on CSR schemes during 2008-09.

“Whatever is unspent (from the fiscal ending March 31) will be carried over,” he said, adding that the oil companies had spent Rs.2.46 billion on CSR projects during 2008-09. Fiscal 2009-10 begins April 1.

Asked by Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India-Marxist as to how much the oil companies had spent on advertisements relating to their CSR schemes and why they should advertise in the first place, Deora replied: “I don’t have the figures but will furnish them to you.”

Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal-United asked why private refiners were not being brought under the ambit of the two percent CSR rule.

“I can’t tell them directly. Some of them are doing it, but certainly not at two percent,” Deora replied.

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