Expenditure on COVID-19 Healthcare facilities and Infrastructure counted under CSR Expenditure
Pursuant to the General Circular No. 09/2021, issued by Ministry of Corporate Affairs, on 5th May, 2021, and in continuation to the General Circular No. 10/2020, as issued on 23rd of March 2020, the MCA hereby elaborated on various health related expenditures that can be utilised to fulfil the purposes of CSR.
Such Expenditures include establishment of medical oxygen storage and generation plants, manufacturing and supply of oxygen cylinders, concentrators and the ventilators, as well as other necessary health infrastructure needed for COVID Patients and their care and treatment or no. (i) and (xii) of Schedule VII of Companies Act of 2013 that include activities concerning promotion of health care and disaster management respectively.
Moreover, attention is also seek to no. (ix) of Sch VII, whereby specific contribution to research and development projects on one side and to public funded organizations and universities engaged in research in the areas of Science, Technology, Medicine and Engineering is also permitted to be grouped under eligible CSR Activities.
Also, these eligible companies have the option to either do this expenditure on their own or they can also collaborate with any other such companies that also include Government Companies, and can thereby undertake fulfilment of such CSR Activities or Programmes or the Projects as decided amongst them or as specified in the Schedule VII with the principle of Shared Responsibility, but subject to the conditions as mentioned in Companies (CSR Policies) Rules of 2014 and with the circulars and guidelines that the MCA will issue on time to time basis in the future.
The main intention of coming up with this Circular is majorly to encourage more and more of Indian Companies to involved in manufacturing or/and supply of essential COVID care equipment’s in the form of ventilators, cylinders as well as concentrators, thereby serving the twin purpose of not only saving the lives of infected patients on a speedy basis but also at the same time giving an extra hand to the companies on fulfilling their duties towards their citizens not only for the purpose of following a law in the form of mandated CSR, but also to scale up the production and supply thereby achieving the end goal of ‘Saving Lives’, and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.
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