Analysis of the actual CSR expenditure: a quantitative study on NIFTY 100 companies

Abstract

Indian corporate sector has consistently gained the mantle of being responsible towards society. However, recent years have witnessed an increase in the legislative interventions to create awareness among business organisations of their moral obligations towards society. Therefore, the present study is a comparative analysis of corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure by NIFTY 100 companies between the voluntary spending period and period after the implementation of Section-135 of the Companies Act, 2013. The expenditure on social and community activities, donations and environment and pollution control related activities have been aggregated to arrive at the CSR expenditure of companies from the financial year 2009-2010 to 2018-2019. The results show a substantial increase in the absolute, sector-wise, growth rate-wise, profitability-wise, theme-wise and percentage CSR expenditure of companies after the implementation of Section-135 of the Companies Act, 2013. Overall, results suggest that the rationale behind the implementation of Section-135 has been achieved by making corporate sector more responsible towards environment and society, with CSR expenditure having improved in the period after its implementation.