Slash dividend & prioritise shoring up balance sheet

Only after business has stabilised and there is visibility ahead should companies look at paying their shareholders

The finance minister while presenting FY2020-21 Union Budget proposed to remove dividend distribution tax on companies: Henceforth the tax is to be collected from recipients, at the applicable rate, which could be as high as 43 per cent. Since then companies have scrambled to declare an interim dividend to make it more tax-efficient for the (controlling) shareholders.  

Market data shows that 424 companies have announced interim dividends between February 1 and March 20, 2020, and 181 of these companies have declared an interim dividend in March. And of these, 64 companies have done so after March 10. There have been no