Sports Council recommends including sports expenditure under CSR

NEW DELHI: The Union Finance Ministry has accepted the All India Council of Sports' recommendation to amend the Indian Companies Act 2013's provisions and widen the scope for CSR activities in sports promotion.

As per the letter sent by ministry on June 8, the creation and maintenance of sports infrastructure, upgradation and renovation of existing facilities and sports science support including setting up of Gymnasium and Rehabilitation Centres have been accepted as part of the Corporate Social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

President of AICS Vijay Kumar Malhotra expressed his thanks to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for accepting his recommendations to amend the Act in respect of utilisation of CSR funds for promotion of Sports.

Earlier, CSR funds were required to be spent on 'training to promote rural sports, nationally recognised sports, Paralympics sports and Olympic Sports'.

While the corporate world has shown their interest in taking up sports in a big way but the previous was restricted to the extent of sports training only and did not permit CSR funds to be utilised for sports promotion as a whole.

While hailing the amendment as a landmark decision, Malhotra said he would once again request the Union Minister of Corporate Affairs to include 'Sponsoring National and International Competitions' for the holistic development of sports in the country.

In this connection, Malhotra mentioned that Mission Olympic Cell has been set up under the Chairmanship of Director General, Sports Authority of India to prepare the Indian Contingents for Olympic Games 2016, 2020 and 2024.

He has also advised the DG, SAI to convene a meeting of all stakeholders to chalk out a roadmap.