Covid-19 crisis: Govt wants PSUs to ramp up dividends, share buybacks

With Covid-19 set to hit FY21 revenue mop-up, Centre looks for options

The central government is assessing the cash position of state-owned companies and may ask them to ramp up dividend payouts and share buybacks as much as possible, people in the know told Business Standard.
 

This comes at a time when the Covid-19 crisis is expected to derail the government’s revenue maths for 2020-21, hitting the mop-up from sources such as taxes and divestment.

The government is of the view that since economic activity is low, central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) are not spending on capital expenditure as much as they would have anticipated, and hence are sitting on cash reserves,