State-run hydro power giant NHPC Wednesday paid an interim dividend of Rs 526.53 crore to the central government for 2018-19.
The dividend payout bank advice was presented to Power Minister R K Singh by NHPC Chairman and Managing Director Balraj Joshi on Wednesday, a company statement said.
The board of directors of the company in its 422nd meeting held on February 8 had declared an interim dividend at the rate of Rs 0.71 per equity share i.e. 7.10 per cent of the face value.
The NHPC has more than seven lakh shareholders and total interim payout for 2018-19 worked out to Rs 713.20 crore. The company had paid the total dividend of Rs 1,436.31 crore at the rate of Rs 1.40 per share for 2017-18 that includes an interim dividend of Rs 1,149.05 crore at the rate of Rs 1.12 per share and final dividend of Rs 287.26 crore at the rate of Rs 0.28 per share.
According to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management guidelines issued in May 2016 on the Capital Restructuring of CPSEs, each CPSE would pay a minimum annual dividend at the rate of 30 per cent of profit after tax (PAT) or 5 per cent of net worth, whichever is higher.
In line with the guidelines, NHPC had paid the total dividend of Rs 1,436.31 crore i.e. 5.07 per cent of net worth and 52.07 per cent of the PAT of the company for 2017-18.
NHPC had earned a net profit of Rs 2,138.26 crore for the nine months ended December 2018, against Rs 2569.23 crore the year-ago period. The company had earned a net profit of Rs 2,758.65 crore for 2017-18.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content