Comments
The board of Coal India Ltd would meet on January 14 to consider payment of interim dividend.
According to market expectations, the public sector miner is expected to pay double that in the previous fiscal year.
In 2012-13, Coal India paid total dividend of Rs 14/share (interim of Rs 9.7/share and final dividend of Rs 4.3/share). This accounted for Rs 8,842.91 crore and another dividend tax of nearly Rs 1,300 crore.
In 2011-12, it paid total dividend of Rs 10/share (Rs 6,316.36 crore). The Government holds 90 per cent stake in the miner.
According to sources, in the current financial year, the total dividend from Coal India may go as high as Rs 25/share. However, it would depend on the net profit clocked by the public sector miner in the fiscal year.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, met with heads of central public sector companies to discuss dividend payment plans. With less than three months to go for the fiscal year, the Government is working on different ways to achieve disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore. Till now, it has mopped up less than Rs 3,000 crore by selling stakes in companies.
Special dividend from companies would help Government bridge the gap in revenue collection if disinvestment target is not achieved.
The revised estimate for revenue generation from dividend from public sector companies stands at Rs 29,996.09 crore in 2012-13. The budget estimate for 2013-14 is Rs 29,870.12 crore.
Economic Affairs Secretary >Arvind Mayaram told PTI , “If CIL does not go for divestment, then they have to provide us a special dividend.”
Earlier, the Government was planning to sale 5 per cent stake in Coal India. However, strong opposition from workers' union and market conditions made Centre to shelve the plan.
Coal India stock surged on the news of interim dividend. The scrip closed at Rs 288.75, up 4.77 per cent on the BSE on Wednesday.
Coal India Ltd has informed the BSE that the company has fixed January 20 as the record date for the purpose of payment of interim dividend.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.