Centre to mop up Rs 4,000 crore in dividends

 This will help the ministry partially offset the shortfall in disinvestment receipts pegged at Rs 13,200 crore in 2003-04.

 According to finance ministry sources, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) too paid only Rs 8,834 crore as dividend for the year-ended June 2003 compared with Rs 10,200 crore a year ago. Interim dividends from PSBs, to an extent, would make up for the lower dividend from the RBI, the sources added.

 Public sector oil companies such as Indian Oil, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Gas Authority of India (Gail) were expected to declared interim dividends amounting to Rs 2,800 crore, slightly higher than Rs 2,687 crore they shelled out last year. An announcement from the companies is expected in January 2004.

 The sources said while no official advice had been sent to the power ministry for interim dividends from its undertakings, there were only two companies, National Thermal Power Corporation and National Hydro-electric Power Corporation, which could be tapped. The ministry expected to realise about Rs 400 crore from these undertakings, they added.

 The finance ministry has already given the customary advice to all PSBs to pay interim dividends in view of the 50 per cent jump in net profits during the first half of this year.

 The sources said the ministry expected about Rs 800 crore from the PSBs as interim dividend.

 While the total non-tax revenue is budgeted at Rs 69,766 crore, dividends account for Rs 17,861 crore.

 The dividends from public sector enterprises are budgeted at Rs 71,36 crore, while those from the RBI, nationalised banks and financial institutions are estimated at Rs 10,724 crore.