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Mining mogul Anil Agarwal-led Hindustan Zinc Ltd on Monday paid the government about Rs 3,000 crore in special dividend, which the London-based billionaire described as helping the government meet budgetary targets.
HZL had on March 30 declared a “special golden jubilee dividend” at the rate of 1,200 per cent —— Rs 24 per equity share of Rs 2 each for 2015-16.
The government holds 29.54 per cent in HZL and its CEO Tom Albanese handed over a cheque of Rs 2,995 crore to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley towards the dividend.
In an interview to PTI earlier this month, Agarwal had said he saw the government as a partner and the move is aimed at helping it meet the budgetary deficit.
“The government was looking for (resources for) their budget and we also wanted to go with them. So, we have given a very handsome dividend. The government will get Rs 3,000 crore in dividend and another Rs 2,000 crore in taxes. So, the government coffer got Rs 5,000 crore overall,” he had said.
His group firm Vedanta Ltd holds 64.92 per cent of HZL and will be richer by Rs 6,583.57 crore from the dividend.
The dividend will help Vedanta Ltd pay off some of its debt. At the end of December quarter, it had a gross debt of Rs 80,952 crore. Of this, $ 1.2 billion loan is coming up for repayment in 2016-17.
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