CSR Cost Per School: Budget Calculator
Put in a budget. See what it buys one school - machines, seats, backup power, cabling, furniture, lighting, cooling - with the cost per seat, the cost per student and every assumption stated on the page. Built to be printed straight into an internal note.
Source: CBM IMPEX, Bengaluru - cbmimpex.com/csr/cost-per-school/ - indicative planning figures, not a quotation.
Your inputs
Nothing is sent anywhere. The arithmetic runs in your browser.
What this budget buys
Where the money goes
| Package | Share | Indicative value |
|---|
Assumptions behind these numbers
All figures are indicative planning bands, not a quotation. Treat them as plus or minus 15 per cent. Rates are confirmed only against a site survey and a current quotation. Equipment prices, freight and GST rates all move.
Where the Model Comes From
The arithmetic on this page is not a rule of thumb. It is derived from a single real project: a 60-seat turnkey computer lab we designed and costed for a Bengaluru school in 2026 - a 25 by 30 foot room of about 70 square metres, 31 machines, a 6 kVA online UPS, 36 certified Cat6 drops, a gypsum-board false ceiling with lighting designed to 300 lux, and two 2.0 TR inverter splits. Electrical and mechanical items were priced on CPWD Schedule of Rates (E&M) 2025 with a provisional Bengaluru location adjustment; civil items on DSR Civil 2023 class rates; IT hardware and furniture on dealer and street pricing converted to ex-GST and then loaded for freight, installation and margin. The gross came to the order of Rs. 42 to 43 lakh including 18 per cent GST.
That gives the package split below, and three derived numbers that are worth more than any single total: about Rs. 71,000 a seat, about Rs. 1.38 lakh a machine, and about Rs. 61,000 a square metre.
| Package | Share of pre-tax cost | What is in it |
|---|---|---|
| IT hardware | ~56% | 31 desktops, 21.5-inch monitors, peripherals, surge strips, a networked laser MFP |
| Electrical & UPS | ~13% | One point and one switch per machine, distribution boards, MCBs, RCCBs, surge protection, earthing, submain, 300 lux LED lighting, fans, and a 6 kVA online UPS with 30 minutes of autonomy |
| Furniture | ~12% | 30 two-seat tables, 60 stackable chairs, teacher furniture, steel storage, boards, blinds, signage and safety kit |
| Civil finishes | ~5.5% | Gypsum-board false ceiling, putty, two coats of premium acrylic emulsion, floor making-good |
| Networking | ~5% | 36 certified Cat6 drops with a 100 per cent permanent-link test report, managed switch, UTM firewall, access points, rack |
| Air conditioning | ~4% | Two 2.0 TR five-star inverter splits with piping and stabilisers, sized to the heat load |
| Commissioning & services | ~2.4% | Measured survey, imaging, assembly, training, as-built documentation, site supervision |
| Software & security | ~1.7% | Lab-management software, centrally managed endpoint security, standard image and policy |
The computers were 56 per cent of it. The room was the other 44. That single line is the most useful thing on this page, and it is the number CSR budgets most consistently get wrong.
The benchmark project is described here in anonymised, rounded form. Client, institution and proposal references are confidential and are not reproduced.
What CBM IMPEX is, and what it is not
CBM IMPEX is a commercial, GST-registered supplier of school equipment, based at #45, K.K. Complex, Shankarmutt Road, Basavanagudi, Bengaluru 560004. We specify, cost, supply, install and document school infrastructure, and we raise a tax invoice against a purchase order like any other vendor.
We are not an NGO, a trust, a society or a Section 8 company. We are not registered as a CSR implementing agency under Form CSR-1, and we hold no 80G registration. Money paid to CBM IMPEX is not a donation. It is payment for goods and services, it is not eligible for any donation-related tax deduction, and we will never describe it as one.
A company executing a CSR education project directly, or the implementing agency it funds, still has to procure the equipment from a vendor. That is the role we fill: the party that turns a sanctioned budget into a working laboratory and hands back the documents that prove it. How your spend is classified, booked and reported under Section 135 is a matter for your CSR committee, your auditors and your legal advisers - not for us.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is the cost per school calculated?
From a two-part model derived from a 60-seat turnkey computer lab we costed on CPWD schedule-of-rates 2025 pricing in Bengaluru in 2026. A turnkey project - one where the room is built as well as equipped - is modelled as about Rs. 4 lakh fixed plus about Rs. 64,500 per seat, including 18 per cent GST. A supply-only project in a room that is already finished, wired, lit and cooled is modelled as about Rs. 1.5 lakh fixed plus about Rs. 51,000 per seat. Smart classrooms are costed per complete room. Every quantity shown - machines, UPS rating, cable drops, light fittings, tonnage, floor area - is derived from the seat count using the same ratios as that benchmark project.
Why does a smaller lab cost more per seat?
Because a large part of a lab does not shrink when the room does. The measured survey, the managed switch, the firewall and content filtering, the wall rack, the distribution board, the earthing, the online UPS, the false ceiling and the commissioning and documentation are all close to fixed. At 60 seats that fixed portion is spread thin and the project lands near Rs. 71,000 a seat. At 30 seats it is nearer Rs. 78,000 a seat, and at 10 seats it is over Rs. 1 lakh a seat. Below roughly 12 seats, a CSR budget usually achieves more spent on smart classrooms than on a very small lab.
What share of a school computer lab is actually the computers?
About 56 per cent of the pre-tax cost on a full turnkey project. The other 44 per cent is the room: electrical points and backup power at about 13 per cent, furniture at about 12 per cent, civil finishes such as false ceiling and paint at about 5.5 per cent, structured cabling and network security at about 5 per cent, air conditioning at about 4 per cent, commissioning and documentation at about 2.4 per cent, and software and endpoint security at about 1.7 per cent. A CSR budget built from a hardware quotation alone is typically short by close to half.
Should cost per student be calculated on seats or on enrolment?
On enrolment. A computer lab running six periods a day is used by the whole school over a week, not only by the children sitting in it at any one moment. Dividing by seats makes a lab look far more expensive per child than it is and makes a large school look the same as a small one. This calculator divides by the enrolment figure you enter, and also shows the figure amortised over a seven-year equipment life, which is the number that tends to survive a board paper.
How accurate are these figures?
They are indicative planning bands, not a quotation, and should be treated as plus or minus 15 per cent at this stage. Electrical and civil rates were built from CPWD schedule rates with a provisional Bengaluru location adjustment; IT hardware and furniture from dealer and street pricing converted to ex-GST and then loaded for freight, installation and margin. Real costs move with the specification you choose, the condition of the existing room and building, the district, and current market and GST rates. A firm price follows a site survey and a current quotation.
Does CBM IMPEX accept CSR donations directly?
No, and it is worth being explicit about why. CBM IMPEX is a commercial, GST-registered equipment supplier. We are not an NGO, a trust, a society or a Section 8 company, we are not registered as a CSR implementing agency under Form CSR-1, and we hold no 80G registration. We do not receive donations. Your company, or the implementing agency it funds, issues a purchase order and we raise a GST tax invoice to that party for goods and services supplied. That payment is not a donation and carries no donation-related tax deduction.
Turn the Estimate Into a Scope
Send us the budget, a rough room size and a district. We come back with a drawn layout, a load calculation and a package-wise estimate you can put in front of a CSR committee.