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Jaitley blasts profit-making firms for not sharing booty

BS Economy Bureau

Law Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday came down heavily on corporates and said that 80 per cent of the profit-making companies had not declared dividends.

Citing another finding of a study conducted by the department of company affairs, Jaitley also said that of the 532,000 registered companies, more than 50 per cent had not bothered to file returns.

To get over the problem, the government had announced an amnesty scheme in 2000 but even that resulted in a mere 50 per cent of the defaulters availing of the one-time measure.

The minister further said that only 11 per cent of the 660 top firms in the country shared any concern for social responsibility.

"There are several areas including museums and libraries where the private sector can come up with sponsorships. Today, there is a concerted effort to look at the 11 per cent figure," Jaitley said while inaugurating the conference on 'Promoting corporate citizenship: challenges and opportunities', organised by Tata Energy Research Institute in New Delhi.

The pressure on profit margins had deterred many private sector companies from sponsoring the cause for social responsibility. "The reason why sponsorships had not come in a big way is the lack of corporate citizenship," the minister said.

Sponsorships should never be with commercial motives, he said, adding that there had been steady progress in sponsoring education and healthcare system.

He also said the other issue was related to environment and the situation was slowly changing since 10 years ago when the corporate sector was "oblivious" of such a policy.

On the hidden investments of funding for politics, he said that was the reason why the government had proposed 100 per cent tax exemption to funding for registered political parties and the proposed bill was before the standing committee of Parliament.

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