Quick Money Limited attracts the provisions of section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 and it has minimum average obligation to spend Corporate…

Rule 8 (3) of the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibilities Policy), 2014 provides the class of companies that are required conduct an impact assessment. Every company having average CSR obligation of ten crore rupees or more in pursuance of section 135 (5) of the Companies Act, 2013, in the three immediately preceding financial years, shall undertake impact assessment, through an independent agency, of their CSR projects having outlays of one crore rupees or more, and which have been completed not less than one year before undertaking the impact study. The above-mentioned companies may undertake impact assessment, through an independent agency. Alternate Answer (i) Meaning of Impact Assessment: The impact assessment is an exercise to assess the social, economic and environmental impact of a particular CSR project. Impact assessment intends to evaluate "social, economic and environmental return on investment". It is the exercise of taking a retroactive view of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities completed by the entity and assess the effects of these activities on various stakeholders like employees, customers, communities and the environment. Impact assessment is seemingly another step to encourage companies to make considered decisions before deploying CSR amounts and assess the impacts of their investments to capture the impact being generated by them. This shall not only serve as feedback for companies to plan and better allocate resources, but shall also deepen the impact of CSR. (ii) Whether the impact assessment is to be taken by all Companies? Since impact assessment is cost-intensive and time consuming, the idea is to obligate only certain classes of companies which have large amount of spending and have completed their large CSR projects. Accordingly, Rule 8 (3) of the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibilities Policy), 2014 requires the following class of companies to conduct an impact assessment: Every company having average CSR obligation of 10crore or more in the three immediately preceding financial years of their CSR projects having outlays of 1crore rupees or more, and which have been completed not less than 1 year before undertaking impact assessment. (iii) Who can conduct an impact assessment? The impact assessment shall be conducted by an independent agency.