Government amends norms; companies' contribution to PM CARES Fund to qualify as CSR expenditure

The PM CARES Fund would be utilised to deal with any emergency or distress situation such as coronavirus outbreak.

NEW DELHI: Donations and contributions to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-CARES) Fund will be counted towards a company's mandatory corporate social responsibility spend, according to a notification issued by the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA).

This will be effective retrospectively from March 28, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the fund, the notification issued on Tuesday said.

With this notification, Schedule 7 of the Companies Act now specifically mentions that contributions to the PM-CARES Fund will count towards a company's CSR obligations.

Aclarification issued by the ministry earlier had included it under a provision of Schedule 7 that qualified any contribution to any fund set up by the central government for socio-economic development and relief as CSR expenditure.