Ministry of Corporate affairs today qualified the contributions to PM CARES funds as CSR expenditure, as per Item No viii of Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013.
The state relief funds and CM relief funds cannot be held admissible under the Schedule VII of Companies Act for CSR expenditure and hence contributions to these funds are not to be considered for CSR expenditure.
Furthermore, it was added by MCA to consider State Disaster Management Authority contributions as CSR expenditures in order to combat COVID- 19 pandemic.
MCA has clarified that the spending of CSR funds for COVID -19 shall get qualified as CSR expenditure.
Payment of salary/ wages to employees or temporary/casual/daily wage workers during this National Lockdown shall not qualify as CSR expenditure.
The same shall be admissible as a onetime exception to CSR expenditure if any ex-gratia payment is made to temporary/casual/daily wage workers over and above the disbursement of wages, specifically for the purpose of fighting COVID 19.
These Clarifications are a part of FAQs released by MCA on April 10.
Read the clarifications here
