Coal India Ltd on Tuesday decided to pay an interim dividend of Rs 29/share, or 290 per cent, for the current financial year.
This is highest ever interim dividend offered by the public sector miner.
The total out-go from the company would be around Rs 18,317.46 crore. Of this, Government who holds 90 per cent of company’s shares would get Rs 16,485.71 crore.
In addition, Government would also get dividend distribution tax of Rs 3,113.05 crore from Coal India and its subsidiaries.
In total, Government would garner Rs 19,598.76 crore from Coal India by way of dividend and its tax.
This dividend would be disbursed on January 25 and all shareholders holding the company's shares as on January 20 would be eligible for the dividend.
In 2012-13, Coal India paid a total dividend of Rs 14/share (interim of Rs 9.7/share and final dividend of Rs 4.3/share). This accounted for Rs 8,842.91 crore and another dividend tax of nearly Rs 1,300 crore.
In 2011-12, it paid total dividend of Rs 10/share (Rs 6,316.36 crore). The Government holds 90 per cent stake in the miner.
Recently, Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, had met with heads of central public sector companies to discuss dividend payment plans. With less than three months to go for the fiscal year, the Government is working on different ways to achieve disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore. Till now, it has mopped up less than Rs 3,000 crore by selling stakes in companies.
Special dividend from companies would help Government bridge the gap in revenue collection if disinvestment target is not achieved.
The revised estimate for revenue generation from dividend from public sector companies stands at Rs 29,996.09 crore in 2012-13. The budget estimate for 2013-14 is Rs 29,870.12 crore.
Earlier, the Government was planning to sale 5 per cent stake in Coal India. However, strong opposition from workers’ union and market conditions made Centre to shelve the plan.
Coal India Ltd has informed the BSE that the company has fixed January 20 as the record date for the purpose of payment of interim dividend.
On Tuesday, the Coal India stock closed 0.12 per cent down at Rs 289.90 on the BSE.