New Delhi: Three PSUs paid a total of Rs 952 crore as dividend to the Central government, said the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) on Friday. While Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) paid Rs 711 crore, NALCO paid Rs 141 crore and Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) paid Rs 100 crore dividend to the government.
"Government has respectively received about Rs 711 crore, Rs 141 crore and Rs 100 crore from IRFC, NALCO, and CONCOR as dividend tranches," DIPAM Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said in a tweet.
Last year, the government had introduced a new 'consistent dividend policy' under which public sector undertakings (PSUs) are required to pay between two-to-four interim dividends in a financial year to ensure continuity of dividends for shareholders. "We have announced a consistent dividend policy, therefore dividends are ensured. The dividend policy has been further fine-tuned to say that we need not wait for annual dividend, and we can have as many as four interim dividends in every quarter in some of the companies or maybe twice in a year," the Secretary had said. He explained that a consistent dividend policy is something that rewards shareholders which include insurance companies, mutual funds.
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