Govt eyes higher dividend target at Rs 70,000 cr

New Delhi: Having reaped rich dividends from the Reserve Bank in the current financial year, the government will be looking forward to receiving about Rs70,000 crore from the central bank and the financial institutions (FIs) in the next financial year.

In the interim Budget to be unveiled in the Lok Sabha on February 1 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, sources said, the government would peg receipts from dividends from financial institutions at much higher level than Rs48,000 crore estimated for the current fiscal. The current financial year estimate has already exceeded the Budget target as RBI paid a dividend of Rs87,416 crore. With public sector banks and financial institutions posting good quarterly numbeRsduring the current financial year, the dividend payout by them in the coming year would be higher compared to this year. So, it would be feasible to expect about Rs70,000 crore as dividend payout from RBI and financial institutions in FY’25, sources said.

The government had pegged a 17 per cent higher dividend at Rs48,000 crore from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), public sector banks and financial institutions in 2023-24.