Oil & gas PSUs spent Rs 1,377 cr on CSR in 2021-22: Minister

New Delhi: Oil and gas PSUs spent a total of Rs 1,377 crore on CSR in 2021-22, with ONGC being the top spender, data shared by Minister of State (MoS) for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli in the Rajya Sabha showed. ONGC spent Rs 436.02 crore in 2021-22, which was the highest CSR spending recorded in the year amidst oil and gas PSUs. Indian Oil came in second as it spent Rs 204.77 crore, followed by BPCL at Rs 166.73 crore and OIL at Rs 163.73 crore.

"CSR is a Board-driven process, and the Board of the Company is empowered to plan, approve, execute, and monitor the CSR activities of the company based on the recommendations of its CSR Committee. CSR mandated companies are required to file details of CSR activities annually in MCA21 registry," Teli told the Upper House in a written reply.

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HPCL spent Rs 161.86 crore on CSR in the year, while GAIL spent Rs 136.46 crore. EIL incurred CSR spending of Rs 10.47 crore and NRL spent Rs 59.05 crore.

CSR: Impact assessment

Commenting on the impact assessment initiatives taken by oil and gas PSUs for the CSR projects undertaken by them, the minister said, "Public Sector Oil Companies have been doing impact assessment exercise of some of their major CSR projects internally or through external agencies. However, as per changes made in CSR rules by Ministry of Corporate Affairs in January, 2021, it has been decided that impact assessment of CSR projects having outlays of one crore rupees or more, shall be undertaken through an independent agency and reports annexed to the Annual Report of the Companies."

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