CSR spending: asked for the PSU and private split, one Lok Sabha answer gave none and another the same day did; spending recorded as "PAN India" fell from Rs 7,066 crore to Rs 663 crore in a year

What was asked

A Lok Sabha question answered on 20 July 2026 (Unstarred Question 161) asked the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for the total Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) spending by Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and private sector companies over the last five years; its distribution by sector, state and district; the spending, projects and implementing agencies in the Nabarangpur constituency of Odisha; and whether the government would encourage CSR in aspirational districts.

The answer gives three tables from companies’ filings in the MCA21 registry, with data updated up to 31 March 2026: CSR spending by state and UT from 2020-21 to 2024-25, by development sector, and by district in Odisha.

The split that was asked for, given in another answer

None of the three tables separates PSUs from private companies, and the answer’s text does not mention the split. On the same day, the same ministry answered Starred Question 3, which asked for the number of PSUs and private sector entities that have allocated CSR funds for development works. Its Annexure-XI gives the PSU and Non-PSU split for all five years, and its totals are the same as the totals in the answer to Unstarred Question 161, to the last decimal.

In 2024-25, by that table, 370 PSUs spent Rs 5,957.08 crore and 29,176 other companies Rs 34,836.92 crore: PSUs gave 14.6% of the total. In 2020-21, PSUs spent Rs 4,486.27 crore, 17.1%. The number of PSUs reporting CSR spending fell, from 448 to 370, while the number of other companies rose from 20,392 to 29,176.

Two weeks later, on 3 August 2026, the ministry gave PSU spending state by state for 2022-23 to 2024-25 (Unstarred Question 2382), and in Unstarred Question 2312 said that PSU/Non-PSU-wise data “is available in public domain” at csr.gov.in. In 2024-25, PSUs accounted for more than half of the CSR spending recorded in Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadweep and Ladakh.

“PAN India” nearly vanishes in 2024-25

The state table has three rows that are not states: “PAN India” and “NEC/Not Mentioned”, for companies that “either did not specify the names of States/UTs or indicated more than one State/UT”, and “Other Centralized Funds”. Together they held Rs 8,138.88 crore in 2023-24, 22.7% of the total, and Rs 1,606.51 crore in 2024-25, 3.9%. Almost all of the fall is in “PAN India”: Rs 7,066.44 crore to Rs 662.74 crore. “Other Centralized Funds” went from Rs 1,071.38 crore to Rs 943.48 crore.

The same break shows in the other tables. In Odisha, the row “District not classified elsewhere” went from Rs 407.36 crore in 2023-24 to Rs 0.32 crore in 2024-25. In the PSU table of 3 August 2026, “PAN India” went from Rs 425.05 crore to Rs 4.27 crore.

It matters for any year-on-year reading. From 2023-24 to 2024-25 the total rose 13.6%, but the amount assigned to states and UTs rose 41.1%, from Rs 27,779.10 crore to Rs 39,187.48 crore. Gujarat’s figure, for one, rose 63.6%. How much of a state’s rise is new spending, and how much is spending that a year earlier would have been recorded as “PAN India”, the answer does not say. It does not say why the row fell either.

It is not a recount of earlier years: with data updated to the same date, 2023-24 still shows Rs 7,066.44 crore as “PAN India”. An earlier answer, to Unstarred Question 2338 of 15 December 2025, with data up to 31 March 2025, gave Rs 6,960.21 crore for that row and Rs 34,908.75 crore in all for 2023-24, against Rs 35,917.98 crore now; neither answer says which filings account for the Rs 1,009.23 crore difference.

What the answer does not give

• The PSU and private split asked for in part (a), given the same day in another answer.
• A district table for India. The answer to parts (a) and (b) says “District-wise and Development Sector wise CSR expenditure in the country” is at Annexures I and II; Annexure-I is state-wise.
• Projects and implementing agencies in Nabarangpur. The ministry says constituency-wise data “is not maintained centrally” and gives the Odisha district table instead, which has amounts only.
• Any figure for aspirational districts. Parts (d) and (e) are answered with the rule that CSR is “a Board driven process” and that the government “does not issue any specific direction to the companies to spend in any particular geographical area”.

Nabarangpur

In the Odisha table, Nabarangpur district recorded Rs 8.59 crore of CSR spending in 2024-25, up from Rs 2.09 crore in 2023-24 and Rs 0.47 crore in 2020-21. Of the 30 districts named, it was 22nd in 2024-25; Angul (Anugola) was first, with Rs 392.40 crore.

Adds up

Every column of all four amount tables (state, sector and Odisha district in the answer to Unstarred Question 161, and PSUs by state in the answer to Unstarred Question 2382) adds up to its printed total within Rs 0.02 crore, a rounding difference. In the split of Starred Question 3, PSU and Non-PSU companies add up exactly to the printed number of companies in every year.

Got it right

The tables check against each other. The Odisha district total equals the Odisha row of the state table in all five years; the PSU state table’s totals equal the PSU amounts in the split given on 20 July; and every table states the date its data runs to. The answer gives five years of the state and sector series, not just the latest.

The sector table shows where the money went: Education, Rs 13,877.34 crore in 2024-25, has received more than Health Care every year since 2022-23, after Health Care led in the two years before. Among the states, Maharashtra recorded the most CSR spending in every year, Rs 8,630.80 crore in 2024-25.

Oquilia’s earlier audit, CSR money by state, looked at the 2023-24 state figures from the answer of 15 December 2025.

Every row of the state table

How we did this

• Sources: the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ answers to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 161 (20 July 2026, Annexures I to III), Lok Sabha Starred Question 3 (20 July 2026, Annexure-XI), Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2382 (3 August 2026, Annexure-I) and Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 2312 (3 August 2026, part (c)).
• All rows were read from each answer’s Word file by a script, and every amount was found in its PDF. Every column was summed against its printed total, and the tables were checked against each other.
• “Assigned to no state” is the sum of the rows “PAN India”, “Other Centralized Funds” and “NEC/Not Mentioned”. PSU shares by state divide the PSU table’s figure by the all-companies figure for the same state and year; both tables run to 31 March 2026.
• We searched the Lok Sabha’s index of answers up to 12 August 2026 for later answers on CSR. The ones of 3 August 2026 used here give the same totals; none says why “PAN India” spending fell in 2024-25.
• Download the data: csr-psu-private-by-state-2020-2025.csv. Our method and labels are on the Data Audit method page.

Questions

Corrections

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