2024-03-01 18:23:06
The interim budget last month estimated such dividend receipts at Rs 50,000 crore for the current fiscal, higher than the initial target of Rs 43,000 crore.
“The dividend receipt might exceed Rs 55,000 crore by the end of this fiscal, with CPSEs in various sectors like power doing well,” a senior official told ET.
Higher dividend would offset any potential shortfall in the government’s miscellaneous receipts, which include disinvestment and monetisation, from the revised estimate of Rs 30,000 crore for FY24.
The total receipts by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), which comprise disinvestment and dividend mop up, have touched Rs 64,164 crore. The disinvestment revenue so far this fiscal stands at Rs 12,609 crore.CPSEs, including ONGC, GAIL, NTPC, Coal India, Power Grid Corporation, IRFC and SAIL, have forked out dividends this fiscal, boosting the government’s revenue.Last fiscal, DIPAM’s dividend receipts had touched a record Rs 59,533 crore, driven significantly by the payment of regarding Rs 9,000 crore by Hindustan Zinc Ltd (HZL) for the government’s 29.54% holding in the miner. Such a generous dividend from HZL is unlikely this fiscal as it has depleted its cash reserves.
However, prospects of robust dividends by large state-run oil firms have brightened from the situation 3-4 months ago when oil prices remained elevated in response to the geopolitical tensions caused by the Israel-Hamas war.
Officials had then apprehended that if the global crude oil prices kept rising and state-run oil firms didn’t pass on the costs to consumers in the build-up to the 2024 general election (expected in April-May), their profitability and ability to pay dividends might falter. However, CPSEs from some other sectors, such as power, had been doing well and might continue to give good dividends, they had said.
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