Govt seeks higher dividend from PSU banks

Hard pressed for funds, the government, on Tuesday, met the heads of several PSU banks to seek larger dividend payouts but did not get any firm commitment from them.

“We discussed what are the dividends that are being paid by banks. We were not given any target. We will look at profit and then give dividend,” Punjab National Bank CMD K R Kamath told reporters after the meeting. The meeting was chaired by Department of Economic Secretary R Gopalan, who had met PSU chiefs earlier to persuade them to increase dividend payout to the government. After the meeting, Bank of India CMD Alok Misra said the finance ministry wanted to know what is the profit the bankers are looking at in the current fiscal.

Last month, finance ministry officials met the chiefs of PSUs in sectors like steel, coal, mines, power and oil.