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Coal India on Monday announced an interim dividend payout that is 170 per cent higher than last year. It is not alone. Fifteen PSUs that have paid out dividends thus far have increased interim payouts by 68.5 per cent compared to last year.
As the Government has been looking for various means to bridge the fiscal gap, it has pegged up expectations from cash-rich PSUs on dividend payouts — inflows have increased by 69.6 per cent.
Around 12 out of 15 State-owned companies that paid out interim dividends hiked their dividends compared to last year. Dividends of cash rich companies such as Coal India, Oil India, Power Grid Corporation, Bharat Electronics, NMDC and Engineers India have jumped between 50 per cent and 170 per cent.
While ONGC and National Aluminium have declared their interim record dates, they have yet to declare the dividend amount. Both these companies have huge cash balances and may increase their payouts.
The Government seems to have made up in the form of the dividends part of what it lost out on stake sales through disinvestment. For the Government, the interim dividend flow from these 15 companies alone has risen from Rs 6,900 crore to Rs 11,700 crore this fiscal .
Last year, the Government had budgeted 10 per cent lower receipts from dividends and profits from PSUs. But actual payouts have turned out to be higher.
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