Govt ask PSUs to pay more

Austerity measures to save Rs 2,000 crore.

The government today unveiled plans to collect more money from public sector undertakings (PSUs) as well as a string of measures to curb wasteful spending.

The measures, effective October 1, include directing profitable PSUs (120 of them) to declare a minimum 20 per cent dividend and issue bonus shares. State-run oil, chemical and infrastructure firms, however, will have to pay out 30 per cent of their post-tax profits as well as issue bonus shares.

"All profit-making joint venture companies will consider issuing bonus shares to the government," a finance ministry statement said. It added that all profit-making PSUs would have to declare a minimum dividend of 20 per cent on equity or a dividend payout of 20 per cent on net profit, whichever was higher.

Government officials said the measure to jack up the dividend to 20 per cent from joint venture companies (like Maruti) was an attempt to maximise its investment in these companies.

The Budget had estimated Rs 12,978.57 crore as dividends from PSUs and other investments for the current fiscal as against a revised estimate of Rs 10,841.18 crore during 2003-04.

Officials also said the government would press for recovery of user charges from public utilities, which had been largely ignored so far.