No undue insistence by govt on dividend payout by PSUs: Geete

Central public sector enterprises may only finalise their full dividend payouts for the current fiscal in September next year

Union Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises Minister Anant Geete today denied reports that the government was demanding hefty dividend from a few reluctant state-owned firms to bridge any tax shortfall this year.

He clarified that there is no undue insistence being made in this regard.

"We are not insisting much on dividend, but all our central public sector enterprises are paying satisfactory dividend," Geete told PTI.

Recent reports suggested that the finance ministry had demanded a dividend payout between 30 per cent and 100 per cent from 12 of the state-owned firms from their 2016-17 or 2017-18 net profit, share buybacks or bonus