With Coal India deciding to pay around Rs 16,485 crore as interim dividend, the government will be able to make up for the shortfall in the disinvestment target of Rs 40,000 crore for the current fiscal.
Keen to bridge the fiscal deficit, the government had given the option to Coal India to either go in for disinvestment or pay special dividend.
Coal India opted to pay higher dividend of of Rs 29 per share, amounting to Rs 18,317 crore, for 2013-14. Out of the total amount, government as 90 per cent owner will get Rs 16,485 crore.
This is double the amount government received from CIL last fiscal.The government had originally planned to divest 10 per cent stake in CIL which would fetched over Rs 16,000 crore. It is now getting nearly a similar amount as special dividend.