BEL pays interim dividend of Rs 174 Cr to Govt

New Delhi: Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), a Navratna PSU under the Ministry of Defence, has paid an interim dividend of 174.43 crore to the government for the current financial year (FY2019-20) on Thursday.

A dividend cheque of Rs 174,43,63,569.20/- (payable on the shares held by the President) was presented to the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh by BEL's Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) MV Gowtama, at New Delhi. On the occasion, Ministry of Defence's Secretary (Defence Production) Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary (P&C) Dr Amit Sahai and other officials from BEL were also present.

This is the 16th consecutive year that BEL is paying an interim dividend. BEL has paid a total dividend of 340 percent on its paid-up capital for the financial year 2018-19. As per December 31, 2019, the government holds 55.27 percent shares in BEL.

This is the 16th consecutive year that BEL is paying an interim dividend. BEL has paid a total dividend of 340 percent on its paid-up capital for the financial year 2018-19

The Backdrop

The Defence PSU in its board meeting held on Januaury 30, had approved the interim dividend at the rate of Rs.1.40 /- per equity share of Rs.1/- each fully paid-up (140 percent) for the financial year 2019-20. The information was shared by BEL during regulatory filing on the same day.

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL)

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) is a Navaratna PSU and India's foremost defence electronics company. BEL is a multi-product, multi-technology, multi-unit conglomerate which supplies over 350 products in the areas of defence products like radars, missile systems, military communications etc and non-defence products like electronic voting machines (EVMs), voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) and solar products.