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Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) chairman, Shri V. S. Jain, presented a dividend cheque of Rs.638.05 core to the Union Minister of Steel, Chemical & Fertilizers, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan here today. This was the second and final instalment of Rs.1169.75 crore dividend for the financial year 2004-05 paid by SAIL to the Government of India which holds 85.82 per cent of paid-up equity of the Company.
SAIL had paid a maiden interim dividend of 15 per cent on paid-up equity(Rs.531 crore) in February, 2005. Now with final dividend of 18 per cent, the total dividend paid for fiscal year 2004-05 aggregates to 33 per cent on the company’s paid-up equity. The total payout on this account will be to the tune of Rs.1363 crore which works out to be 20 per cent of the companies Profit After Tax (PAT) of Rs.6817 crore for 2004-05. This is the highest ever dividend paid by SAIL which has also emerged as the second highest profit earner among PSUs during the last financial year.
Later, addressing the mediapersons, the Minister said that his efforts would be to ensure that SAIL emerges as the world’s largest steel manufacturing company. Shri Paswan also said that SAIL would invest a sum of Rs.25000 crore in the next five years. The Minister also said that the year 2004-05 was a year of record breaking performance for the steel major which set new records in all areas of business performance. He also added that SAIL’s PAT zoomed by 171 per cent over the previous year backed by best-ever production, sales and efficiency parameter which is a good sign for the Indian economy. All time best figure was also achieved in turn-over which stood to the tune of Rs.31,800 crore.
SKM/CS
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