The Hindu Business Line : Oil PSUs to consider interim dividends

OIL majors are considering interim dividend. The boards of Indian Oil Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation would be meeting shortly to consider interim dividend and other PSU oil companies are expected to follow suit.

According to analysts, interim dividend from cash-rich oil companies is the "tried and tested" method of bridging the fiscal deficit. Last year, the Union Government had collected Rs 2,687.42 crore from oil PSUs as interim dividends to close the fiscal deficit gap.

HPCL and IOC on Thursday informed the stock exchanges that their boards would meet on December 22 and December 26respectively to consider payment of interim dividend. Record dates have been set as December 30 and January 2, 2004 respectively.

"We expect the oil companies to maintain the dividend payouts at roughly the same levels as last year," said a senior analyst with a leading Indian securities firm.

BPCL, ONGC, Gail India and Engineers India Ltd are expected to make announcements on dividend before month-end, according to sources.

Last year, ONGC had paid Rs 2,038.87 crore interim dividend at Rs 17 a share while IOC's payout was Rs 319 crore. Gail's interim dividend is likely to be almost the same at Rs 170.83 crore at Rs 3 per share. HPCL and BPCL may also pay dividends at the same levels of Rs 34.61 crore and Rs 39.72 crore respectively (at Rs 2 per share), said analysts.

Oil ministry officials including the Petroleum Secretary, Mr B.K. Chaturvedi, had earlier said that PSUs have been asked to help bridge the revenue gap through interim dividends.

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