Buoyed by a better performance, state-owned iron ore miner NMDC is likely to fork out Rs 3,110 crore dividend this fiscal, 35 per cent more than in 2012-13.

Both production and sales of the country’s largest iron ore miner were higher during the April-December period of the 2013-14 fiscal, and the upward trend is expected to continue as the fourth quarter is considered to be the best one by the iron ore industry.

Production and sales were higher by about 3 per cent during the 9-month period at 20.17 million tonnes (mt) and 21.25 mt, respectively.

“Our performance has been spectacular in the third quarter and the overall performance for the 9-month period is also better than the same period of the last year. So, naturally, dividend pay-out would be higher this year,” NMDC Finance Director S. Thiagrajan said.

He did not quantify the amount of dividend that the firm was going to pay this year saying, “this is a call of the company’s Board and it will decide on it”.

However, sources said it would be about Rs 3,110 crore.

NMDC’s production during the October-December quarter was up by 37 per cent to 7.3 MT while despatches registered 40 per cent increase to 7.4 MT.

The company had paid Rs 2,299 crore dividend in 2012-13; Rs 1,606 crore in the previous fiscal and Rs 1,177.58 crore in 2010-11.

NMDC had earlier indicated that the PSU would end up the current fiscal with a production of 27-28 mt. The company has a total production capacity of 32 mtpa at its mines in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka. It targets to achieve 40 mt capacity by 2014-15.

The higher dividend by NMDC and other PSUs will help the government meet the fiscal deficit target of 4.8 per cent of GDP.

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