Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge today received cheques amounting to a total of Rs 505.31 crore as dividend for the year 2012-13 from the seven public sector undertakings functioning under his ministry.
In 2011-12, the total dividend paid by these seven PSUs was Rs 405.78 crore.
"Despite the slowdown, Railway PSUs have performed well and are paying approximately 25 per cent more dividend in 2012-13 as compared to the previous year," a senior rail ministry official said.
The heads of all seven PSUs -- Container Corporation of India Ltd (Concor), Ircon International Ltd, RailTel Corporation of India Ltd (RCIL), RITES, Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and Indian Railway Finance Corporation (IRFC) -- met Kharge and personally presented the cheques.
Besides Kharge, all Railway Board members were present during the meeting.
The maximum dividend was paid by Ircon Chairman-cum- Managing Director, Mohan Tiwari, who handed over a cheque of Rs 148.06 crore. He was followed by Concor CMD Anil K Gupta, who gave the minister a cheque for Rs 143.48 crore.
The cheque for the lowest amount was from IRCTC, which returned a dividend of Rs 11.77 crore.
IRFC MD Rajiv Dutt presented a cheque for Rs 110 crore while the RITES cheque, presented by CMD RK Mehrotra, amounted to Rs 50 crore, RVNL CMD Satish Agnihotri handed over a cheque for Rs 27 crore while RK Bahuguna of RCIL gave a cheque for Rs 15 crore.
