Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is about the responsibility of corporates towards adding value and giving back to the society. Colruyt India has been actively contributing towards sustainable goals for the larger good of the Society as a whole, since its existence in India, and even before CSR became a mandatory requirement under the Companies Act, 2013.
Colruyt Group is known for working with the 3P principle ie. People, Planet and Profit. Doing things in a sustainable way is the DNA of the Group. And Colruyt India derives its legacy of being socially responsible and doing things in a sustainable way from its Group. It is this value of sustainability, which marks all our endeavours and this includes our initiatives for Colruyt India’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes.
Our CSR policy articulated below reflects these principles and strategies that have formed our long history of corporate citizenship and social responsibility over the years.
The objective of the CSR policy is to define Colruyt India CSR approach, inter alia, towards achieving one or more of the following – youth empowerment through skill development, improving livelihood of economically underprivileged community, promoting education, innovation, healthcare and hygiene; providing sanitation and safe drinking water; eradication of hunger and poverty, ensuring environmental sustainability and disaster management
In pursuit of the above, Colruyt has identified the following focus areas for its CSR initiatives:
This policy lays down the guidelines and mechanism for undertaking socially useful programmes for welfare and sustainable development of community at large.
The above is only an illustrative list and the CSR activities will not be restricted to these activities only and CSR Committee will take up new areas of CSR activities if the activities are within the purview of Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 read with CSR rules as amended from time to time.
a. The CSR Activities may be implemented:-
b. If such trust, society or company/entity is not established by the Company or its holding or subsidiary or associate company, it shall have an established track record of three years in undertaking similar programs or projects;
c. The CSR Committee shall specify the project or programs to be undertaken through these entities, the modalities of utilization of funds on such projects and programs and monitoring and reporting mechanism.
d. Every CSR proposal has to be implemented in project mode, which entails defining activities, period, financial requirement, organizational responsibilities, outcome / expected results and sustainable aspects. The CSR Committee shall evaluate the proposals and give its recommendations. It must ensure that CSR Projects are aligned with the main Objectives as captured in this Policy
e. The implementation partners shall be mandatorily registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for carrying on CSR activities.
a. The Company has constituted a Board Level Committee for CSR in compliance with the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013.
b. The CSR Committee shall constitute a CSR implementation/working Committee with the employees who voluntarily and actively participate in the CSR activities of the Company. The CSR Committee delegates the CSR activities to such working committee.
c. The working committee under the supervision and control of the CSR Committee, evaluates and proposes CSR activities for each year. The CSR Committee shall first obtain the approval of Colruyt India Board on proposed activities for every year in the form of an Annual Action Plan, and then act on implementing the same.
d. CSR Committee of the Company is responsible for the overall governance and management of the CSR goals and activities of the Company. It shall formulate suitable policies, define the driving principles and objectives of the CSR program of the Company.
e. Every year, a budget based on average net profits of the Company made during the three immediately preceding financial years is allocated at the beginning of every financial year, towards CSR activities. Based on this budget the CSR Committee recommends an Annual Action Plan and the same is considered and approved by the Board of Directors of Colruyt India.
f. The Board will consider and approve the Annual Action Plan with such modification that may be deemed necessary; the Annual Action Plan may also be modified by the Board during the financial year, on the recommendation of the CSR Committee.
g. The Annual Action Plan shall specify the CSR Programmes to be carried out during the financial year, including the budgets thereof, their manner of execution, implementation schedules, modalities of utilisation of funds, and monitoring & reporting mechanism for the CSR Programmes.
h. The working committee shall coordinate and work for implementation of CSR Projects as per the Annual Action Plan; devise an appropriate corporate communication strategy pertaining to the subject matter; promote voluntary active participation of employees of Colruyt India in CSR programs and update on the progress in the implementation of CSR activities to the CSR Committee as per requirements.
i. The CSR Committee shall review and monitor the progress of the execution of projects and will carry out any other associated activity, which the Committee may consider appropriate.
a. It shall be the Company's endeavour to spend in every financial year, two percent of its average net profits during the three immediately preceding financial years (or such other limit as may be prescribed under the Act), on CSR Programmes in pursuance of this Policy.
b. Any amount remaining unspent at the end of the financial year, if any, except in case of an ongoing project, shall be transferred to a Fund specified in Schedule VII for this purpose, within a period of six months of the expiry of the relevant financial year (or such other period as may be prescribed under the Act and the rules made thereunder).
c. If due to some reason, the budget for of a year remains unutilized, it would be carried forward to the next year for expenditure on Ongoing CSR Activities/Projects, which were planned for implementation in the previous year, but could not be completed due to some reason. However, endeavor should be made to spend the unutilized budget of any year within that financial year.
d. The “Ongoing Projects” are such projects that spill over more than a financial year. Any amount remaining unspent and earmarked for the ongoing project, shall be transferred within a period of thirty days from the end of the financial year (or such other period as may be specified in the Act and rules made thereunder, as amended from time to time) to a special account to be opened by the Company for that financial year in any scheduled bank to be called as ‘Unspent Corporate Social Responsibility Account’. Such amount shall be spent within a period of three financial years from the date of such transfer, failing which, the unspent amount shall be transferred to the Fund as specified in Schedule VII for this purpose, within a period of thirty days from the date of completion of the third financial year (or such other period as may be specified in the Act and rules made thereunder, as amended from time to time).
e. The surplus arising out of the CSR activities, projects or programmes will not form part of the business profits of the Company and shall be ploughed back into the same project or shall be transferred to the Unspent CSR Account and spent in pursuance of CSR policy and annual action plan of the Company.
f. If CSR expenditure in a financial year exceeds the statutory limit, such excess may be set-off against CSR expenditure for the next three financial years with the approval of the Board, on the recommendation of the CSR Committee.
g. The CSR projects or programs or activities that benefit only the employees of the Company and their families shall not be considered as CSR activities.
h. The activities undertaken in pursuance of normal course of business of the Company shall not be included under CSR activities.
i. If it is observed that any CSR activity taken up for implementation is found not properly implemented, Colruyt India at its discretion may discontinue funding the project at any time during the course of implementation.
A Society by the name “Colruyt In Coworkers Charitable Society (CICCS)” has been formed by the employees of the Company to provide a platform to the employees to engage in social and charitable activities in their individual capacities, The CSR programs undertaken by the CICCS are in addition to the CSR program undertaken by Colruyt India.
The CSR Committee of Colruyt India actively encourages CICCS to engage in social and charitable activities.