Ministries mull interim oil dividends

In an unexpected development, instead of discussing the sale of government equity in Indian Oil Corporation and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, officials of finance, disinvestment and petroleum ministries today explored the possibilities of interim dividend payoff from public sector oil companies to raise resources for shoring up the government's finances.

Emerging from the meeting with the officials, including Disinvestment Secretary Dhirendra Singh and Advisor to the Finance Minister Vijay Kelkar, Petroleum Secretary B K Chaturvedi told newspersons the "sale of equity in oil PSUs was not considered today".

Chaturvedi said he would meet the disinvestment secretary tomorrow to further discuss the issue of interim dividend.

Last year, the oil companies had paid an interim dividend of Rs 2,687 crore. The PSUs had earned profits of Rs 10,300 crore during the first half of this fiscal.

Yesterday, Chaturvedi had told newspersons the meeting had been convened to discuss 20 per cent divestment of government shares in IOC and five per cent in ONGC.

Meanwhile, Singh told newspersons the issue of cross-holding of equity in oil PSUs -- IOC, ONGC and Gail (India) Limited -- was discussed at the meeting. However, he did not elaborate.