Mumbai: Salt-to-software Tata Group Tuesday said the CSR spend by the group companies alone crossed Rs 660 crore last fiscal and that money will not be a problem when it comes to social outreach even beyond the legal mandate of 2 percent of net income.
"During the last three years, we have been trending at an average of Rs 1,000 crore per annum between the Tata trusts and our companies, typically in a 60:40 ratio between the companies and the trusts. The specific figure for FY14 by the group companies is Rs 660 crore," group brand custodian Mukund Rajan told reporters while addressing a media roundtable on 'Sustainability @ Tata'.
Over the past decade, the group companies and the trusts of the over USD 100-billion Tata Group together spent in excess of Rs 8,000 crore on CSR activities, Rajan added.
The group holding company, Tata Sons, is 66 percent owned by various Tata trusts.
The Tata Group had about USD 5 billion in net income on a group revenue of a little over USD 100 billion last fiscal.
According to the mandatory 2 percent net profit spend on CSR, the group a spent Rs 60 crore more than this legal requirement last fiscal.
When asked whether the group will be spending more than the legally required amount under the new CSR law, Rajan said there won't be any dearth of funds when it comes to giving back to the society. Even the past fiscal spend was above 2 percent.
Stating that sustainability is at the core of Tata values, Rajan said at the group sustainability is a business approach that creates long-term stakeholder value by balancing economic, environmental and social factors.
"This is not only a practice but a tradition in the group and is embedded in the corporate DNA of the group," he said.
Stating that sustainability has been a part of the Tata tradition even before the word sustainability became fashionable.
Recalling some of the salient initiatives the group has undertaken on the CSR front significantly ahead of regulatory requirements, Rajan said Jamsetji had established a creche for working mothers at the Tata textile mills in the 1880s, something which is not legislated even today.
The group had set up a pension fund way back in 1886; medical dispensaries and provided for accident compensation in 1895, made 8-hours working in 1912, which was legislated only 1948, and in 1920 it introduced leave with pay and maternity benefits, which all became law only around the late 1950s in the country.
Rajan said the group's social commitment is also embedded in the unique ownership model of the Tata group, where 66 percent of the equity of Tata Sons, the holding company, is held by philanthropic trusts, thereby returning wealth to the society.
This structure as per the former chairman JRD Tata, is because "the wealth gathered by Jamsetji and his sons in half a century... Is held in trust for the people and used exclusively for their benefit. The cycle is thus complete: what came from the people has gone back to the people many times over," he said.
Tata companies spend their CSR money on a wide range of programmes across areas such as skills development (its in talks with the National Skill Development Corporation), livelihoods, education, health and nutrition, bio-diversity and disaster relief.
The group's CSR efforts are monitored by the the Tata Sustainability Group, led by Shankar Venkateswaran.
One of the key focus areas for the Tata Sustainability Group is a volunteering programme under the aegis of the Tata Volunteering Week.
