In an attempt to reduce its financial burden, the State governmen is looking to tap into the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives of the multinational companies.
On Thursday, T B Jayachandra, Law Minister said that various departments of the government have already been approaching corporate for funding the government projects under their CSR initiative.
“While we cannot dictate to the corporates to spend only in the State, we are trying our best in convincing them to invest in our programmes. Under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Rules of Companies Act, 2013, companies can invest two per cent of their average net profits in any part of the country,” said Jayachandra. The minister said that if the CSR is implemented in an orderly fashion, the government may reap benefits to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore.
According to Shalini Rajneesh, Principal Secretary of DPAR, the Health Department and the Women and Child Development Department have already put together an action plan to seek funding from the corporate sector for their activities.
“While the decision to invest in our State projects and infrastructure is left to the MNCs, we should not be left out in making the first move. As a result, every department is being asked to put across their action plans for seeking CSR funding,” she said.
Rajneesh said that the Commerce and Industries department too asked to issue circulars to all the departments and the companies which are interested in carrying out CSR activities for the State government projects.
The DPAR on its part has form a junction with with General Electricals (GE) to take care of installation and maintenance of kiosks under the Sakaala project in rural areas.
The government is thinking about exempting declaration of affidavits in several Revenue department services under Sakaala.
“We have a list of services which come under the Revenue department. We are considering withdrawing the mandatory submission of affidavits in several of the department services,” said Jayachandra.