Annual Impact Report

Every company files annual accounts. Every social enterprise on a Social Stock Exchange also files an Annual Impact Report (AIR): a yearly account of the social results it produced.

It is the heart of the SSE's promise. Donors buying Zero Coupon Zero Principal instruments get no interest and no principal back. The AIR, and the independent assessment attached to it, is how they learn whether the social return they were promised was delivered.

The rule is Regulation 91E of the SEBI LODR Regulations. A social enterprise that is either registered with, or has raised funds through, a Social Stock Exchange must submit an annual impact report in the format SEBI specifies.

Chapter 7 adds that AIRs do two jobs at once. They build a trend analysis of the enterprise's performance, and they provide a baseline and midline for the years that follow.

Who assesses it (Regulation 91E):

Coverage. The AIR must cover at least 67% of programme expenditure in the previous financial year. For an NPO registered without listing, it covers the NPO's significant activities, and the methodology for deciding significance must be explained. Any activity under a listed security automatically counts as significant.

Deadline. Social enterprises that raised funds on the SSE must provide a duly assessed AIR by October 31 each year, or before the due date of filing the income-tax return, whichever is later.

Minimum contents (9.2.4):

Other rules:

• A Social Impact Fund whose recipients registered on or raised funds through the SSE files one overall AIR covering all investees and grantees.
• The SSE may specify extra parameters.
• The social enterprise discloses the assessor's report along with the AIR.
• The reporting forms are Form 2.1 (Annual Social Impact Report, Regulation 91E(1)) and Form 3.1 (Annual Social Impact Assessment Report, Regulation 91E(2)).

Illustrative NPO and figures; the 67% rule, deadline and assessment split are the workbook's.

Swasthya Setu Trust, Nagpur, is registered on NSE SSE and has one listed ZCZP project. Its programme expenditure last financial year:

Step 1 — coverage. At least 67% × ₹300 lakh = ₹201 lakh must be covered. TB screening (₹140 lakh) alone covers 46.7% — not enough. Adding nutrition support (₹95 lakh) brings coverage to ₹235 lakh = 78.3% ✓.

Step 2 — who signs what.

• TB screening (listed) → assessed by a Social Impact Assessment Organisation.
• Nutrition support (not listed) → self-certified.

Step 3 — content. For TB screening, the AIR states the challenge, the target segment in six tribal blocks, the baseline case-detection rate, the trend, alignment with national TB priorities, risks such as staff attrition, and an Impact Score Card showing screenings, detections and treatment completion, with beneficiary validation.

Step 4 — deadline. If the trust's income-tax return is due on 31 October, the AIR is due 31 October. If the return date is later, the AIR is due on that later date.

Chapter 9 (9.2.4) is the source: Regulation 91E, assessed vs self-certified, the 67% coverage rule, the deadline, and the three content sections. Chapter 7 covers impact reporting generally and the AIR's dual role. Chapter 9's second sample question asks what must at least be covered in an AIR — Strategic Intent and Planning, Impact Score Card and Approach. Its third asks which section a given question ("How is the organisation attending to the challenge…?") belongs to — Strategic Intent and Planning.

• 67% of programme expenditure in the previous financial year. Not 67% of total expenditure, not of funds raised, not of beneficiaries.
• Listed → assessed by an SIAO; non-listed or registered-only → self-certified.
• October 31 or the ITR due date, whichever is later.
• Three sections: Strategic Intent and Planning; Approach; Impact Score Card. "Baseline status" and "past performance trend" sit under Approach. "Who is being impacted" sits under Strategic Intent and Planning.
• Unintended negative outcomes must be disclosed, under Strategic Intent and Planning.
• Form 2.1 is the enterprise's AIR; Form 3.1 is the assessor's report. Forms 1A and 1B are general, governance and financial disclosures.
• A registered-only NPO still files an AIR — self-certified.
• The no-raise window is worded two ways. Regulation 91E's proviso says a maximum of two years. The footnote on the same page, and Chapter 3, say it may be extended by one year with the exchange's approval.