. KATHMANDU: Citizens Bank Limited has provided Teej special gifts to its female employees on the occasion of Dashain by distributing big clients, officials of regulatory bodies and journalists from black level to red level on the basis of human status. The bank has provided medical supplies to its female employees on the occasion of Teej. More than 800 female employees working in 188 branches of the bank received the gifts. But in this way, the bank has used social responsibility money to give Teej to its employees. This is completely against the provisions related to social responsibility issued by Nepal Rastra Bank.

The bank has distributed gift packs such as sanitary pads, sanitary liner, wet tissue, chocolates and other gifts to its female employees on the occasion of Teej. Smarika Tiwari, an employee of the bank’s corporate communication, confirmed that the budget was used as part of CSR while distributing the gifts. “Yes, as part of Social Responsibility, the packs were distributed to women employees on Teej. Talking to Artha Sarokar, she said, “The pack contains medical supplies. ‘

He said only health supplies, but chocolate is also included in the pack. “Can you use CSR money to give gifts to your own employees? When asked about the meaning of this, Tiwari replied, “It is a social responsibility to provide medical supplies to our employees. We are also people of this society, aren’t we? What’s wrong with that?”

“And is chocolate also part of the social responsibility?”

Can you distribute chocolates to your employees as a social responsibility? We called Nepal Rastra Bank Spokesperson Gunakar Bhatta to ask the same question. When we found that his phone was switched off, we called the deputy spokesperson of the Rastra Bank. We asked this question to an official of the supervision section of the Nepal Rastra Bank after the assistant spokesperson’s phone was also switched off. In response, he said, “As a social responsibility, you cannot distribute things including chocolates to your own employees.” The Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) has made it clear what can and cannot be done in terms of social responsibility. As far as distributing packages to your own employees by keeping chocolates and other items is concerned, it can be used as a gift for other expenses, not as a social responsibility.