Govt may seek special dividend from top PSUs to meet tax deficit

New Delhi: Government may seek special dividend from leading central public sector enterprises (CPSE) to shore up its revenue during the current fiscal.

"It could be one of the options to meet the revenue shortfall arising due to deficit in tax collection or disinvestment proceeds but nothing has been finalised so far on this," sources said.

The option would be looked into after release of second quarter numbers, sources added.

As per norms, profit-making CPSEs are required to declare a minimum dividend of 20 per cent or a minimum pay-out of 20 per cent whichever is higher.

In case of PSUs operating in oil, petroleum, chemical and infrastructure sectors, the minimum divided pay-out should be 30 per cent of the post tax profits.

Companies like Coal India Ltd, NTPC, ONGC, GAIL, IOC etc may be asked to pay special dividend if government decides so.

The government expects revenue collection to fall short of the budgetary target by 5-7 per cent, mainly because of subdued growth in direct taxes.

Total tax revenues are likely to be around Rs 14 lakh crore in the current fiscal, as against the budget estimate of Rs 14.5 lakh crore.

Besides, there are fears that government may not meet its disinvestment target.

With first half of the current fiscal already over, the government has garnered only Rs 12,600 crore through stake sale in four PSUs -- Indian Oil Corporation, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and Dredging Corporation.

It had budgeted to raise Rs 69,500 crore through disinvestment in current fiscal, of which Rs 28,500 crore is to come from strategic stake sales.