ONGC calls Gujarat plaint on lack of CSR invalid

Oil & Natural Gas Corp on Friday rebutted an official complaint by the Gujarat government to the centre that it is not doing enough towards corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the state, saying it has a policy to spend 2 per cent of its profit after tax on CSR initiatives.

''We have a set policy of spending two per cent of our profit after tax in CSR. We are spending enough money in the areas where we have our assets. If there is a perception that we are not spending enough in Gujarat, we cannot change it overnight,'' Sudhir Vasudeva, chairman & managing director of the state-run explorer and producer, told reporters in Vadodra on Friday.

Vasudeva was replying to a question about what would he do to change the negative perception that was created after D J Pandian, principal secretary in the energy and petrochemicals department of the state government, wrote to union petroleum secretary S Sundareshan in August last year complaining about the issue.

Padian had written that ONGC's spending in CSR activities in Gujarat should be commensurate with the share of production it derives from the state. ONGC's net profit for 2010-11 was Rs4,000 crore and Pandian had demanded that the oil major should spend Rs80 crore of this in the state.

Vasudeva was on his maiden visit to the state after he took over as ONGC chief in October 2011. He is scheduled to visit geophysical camp site at Amod near Jambusar today as part of field review.

The PSU has three assets in Gujarat - at Ankleshwar, Ahmedabad and Mehsana. These assets had contributed around 24 per cent of the ONGC's total crude oil production of 25mmtpa in 2010-11.