Even after a poor performance, the manufacturing companies contributed the most to CSR expenditure at 19.96 per cent.

As coronavirus continues to spread across the country, private and public sector companies have stepped up CSR efforts to fight the pandemic. Corporate Social Responsibility spends by the companies have shot up to provide relief funds, food donations, masks, sanitisers, and PPE kits. 84 out of 130 companies analysed contributed Rs 7,537 crore in CSR funds during March-May 2020, according to research by CRISIL. Though public sector companies represented only around 8 per cent of the companies engaged in CSR, those contributed to nearly 28 per cent of the total spend. On the other hand, with a total share of 86 per cent, the private companies contributed proportionately lower to around 65 percent of the CSR spend.

Sectoral CSR contributions

Even after a poor performance, manufacturing companies contributed the most to CSR expenditure at 19.96 per cent, however, the contribution is proportionately less as it represents 34.72 per cent of the total number of companies. Among other sectors, financial services contributed more than its proportion in the overall companies. It accounted for less than a tenth of the companies but over a sixth of the spend, which was a 1.42 percentage points increase on-year.

The IT sector also surfaced as an important contributor, with 4.31 per cent of companies and 12.50 per cent of the spend. Though the companies are required to spend only 2 per cent of their annual net profit as CSR, the number of companies spending more than 2 per cent of their profits on CSR increased by 9.3 percentage points on-year in healthcare, followed by consumer and services industries with 7.4 and 5.8 percentage points, respectively. However, the telecom sector once again disappointed on the CSR front too. Telecom remained a laggard with just 2.43 per cent players spending on CSR, the least contribution to total spend at 1.53 per cent.

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Highest-contributing states

Maharashtra and Delhi are among the states which have borne the maximum brunt of coronavirus, but these two states are also the ones that have received maximum contributions as CSR funds. Maharashtra accounted for the highest share receiving 49.85 per cent CSR funds while the National Capital Territory of Delhi grabbed 17.25 per cent of the CSR funds. Karnataka, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu showed an impressive increase in the amount spent on CSR. Gujarat, however, was the only state that saw a decrease in CSR spend compared with the previous fiscal. The top 10 states, based on the number of companies with registered offices, accounted for 96 per cent of the total CSR spend in fiscal 2019.