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Oil PSUs to issue bonus shares -- Rs 448.84-cr provision in supplementary demand

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, Nov. 29

IN a further bid to make up for the likely shortfall in disinvestment receipts, the Centre has made State-owned oil companies issue bonus shares worth Rs 448.84 crore.

In the second supplementary demand for grants tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, has made a provision of Rs 448.84 crore towards the issue of bonus shares, including Rs 319.36 crore by Indian Oil Corporation, Rs 57.69 crore by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, Rs 37.95 crore by Kochi Refineries Ltd and Rs 33.84 crore by Engineers India Ltd.

The last time the Centre took significant recourse to such a measure was in 1995-96, when public sector undertakings (again under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas) issued bonus shares to the tune of Rs 1,034.86 crore.

There were similar issues of Rs 75.10 crore in 1996-97, Rs 1 crore in 1997-98 and Rs 6.47 crore in 1998-99. The subsequent Budgets did not make any provision under this head.

The move comes on top of the Government's earlier decision to realise Rs 9,350 crore as dividend from the Reserve Bank of India out of its surplus profit. As against this, the Budget had estimated a mop-up of only Rs 6,500 crore on this count.

The extra Rs 2,850 crore dividend from RBI along with the Rs 448.84 crore issuance of bonus shares would help the Centre offset, at least partially, the anticipated shortfall in its disinvestment receipts budgeted at Rs 12,000 crore during the current fi scal.

So far, the Centre has been able to mobilise only Rs 426.67 crore as "proper'' disinvestment receipts.

These include realisations from the sale of its equity in CMC Ltd (Rs 152 crore), Hindustan Teleprinters Ltd (Rs 55 crore) and the Hotel Corporation of India's Centaur Hotel properties at Mumbai (Rs 153 crore) and Rajgir in Bihar (Rs 6.51 crore).

The Centre is also planning to transfer "excess'' cash reserves of State-owned companies such as Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, slated for disinvestment in the current fiscal, to the Consolidated Fund of India.