Every company which satisfies the specified criteria needs to constitute a Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the board. The committee shall consist of 3 or more Directors, out of which 1 Director should be an Independent Director. In case a company is not required to appoint an Independent Director under Section 149(4), then its CSR committee should have at least 2 or more Directors.
Companies are required to spend at least 2% of their average net profits. The company should give preference to the local areas where it operates.
CSR provisions don't apply to companies whose net worth is not more than ₹500 crore or more, turnover of ₹1,000 crore or more, or net profits of ₹5 crore or more during the immediately preceding financial year. Furthermore, the circular reiterates that those activities that benefit only the employees or their families, one-off events, expenses towards the fulfilment of regulatory statutes, contributions to political parties, activities as part of the normal course of business or those undertaken outside of India do not qualify as CSR expenses.
No, a company can open a single special account, called the Unspent Corporate Social Responsibility Account, for a financial year in any scheduled bank to transfer the unspent amount w.r.t ongoing projects of that financial year. A company needs to open a separate 'Unspent CSR Account' for each financial year but not for each ongoing project.
No, the provisioning of a separate special account, namely the Unspent CSR Account, in any scheduled bank is to ensure that the unspent amount, if any, is transferred to this designated account and used only for meeting the expenses of ongoing projects and not for other general purposes of the company. The special account cannot be used by the company as collateral or any other business activity.
Yes. CSR provisions shall also apply to Section 8 companies.
Whether you can invest your unutilised CSR funds or not differs between ongoing and not-ongoing projects:
Not-ongoing projects: The unutilised part is to be transferred to the Fund referred to under Schedule VII, immediately within 6 months after the end of the financial year. Therefore, there is no question of parking it under an FD.
Ongoing projects: Companies act allows you to park it in a separate bank account in such a manner that allows usage of the funds within three years. Accordingly, the unutilised part of the funds may be parked temporarily to earn interest in line with the guidelines as stipulated in the companies act or as amended from time to time.