PSUs To exceed Rs 1.2 lakh cr total dividend payout to investors in FY26: DIPAM Secretary

PSUs To exceed Rs 1.2 lakh cr total dividend payout to investors in FY26: DIPAM Secretary

DIPAM Secretary Arunish Chawla on September 22 said Department of Investment and Public Asset Management aims to exceed Rs 1.2 lakh crore dividend in FY26.

"If you see, in the last five years, the dividend payout by the public sector enterprises has doubled. And even though they have occupied only 14% of the market cap in our capital markets, they paid 25% of dividends to the small investors. So, that will continue. And they achieved a record landmark last year, almost Rs 1.2 lakh crore was distributed as total dividends. And we hope to exceed it this year," said Chawla while speaking at Network18 Reforms Reloaded in New Delhi.

Chawla said DIPAM is on course to meet asset monetisation target in FY26.

In a conversation with CNBC-TV18 Managing Editor Shereen Bhan, Chawla said public investment through budgetary support has remained on target, with 33% of the year's goal achieved by the end of July. He also highlighted the democratisation of capital markets as a major reform, noting that despite recent nervousness, two-thirds of domestic institutional investors (DIIs) are individual investors.

From January to August, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) pulled out Rs 1 lakh crore in net terms, DIIs invested Rs 5 lakh crore.

He also spoke about the "fresh breeze" coming from domestic investors.

"Seeing a structural change, greater democratisation, small investors are part of market framework. Inspite of global headwinds, Very soon our capital markets will be third largest in world," he said.

"As markets stabilise, we will bring in more OFS (offer-for-sale), minority stake sales, a few IPOs and speed up the journey," Chawla said, adding that the government is confident of exceeding the disinvestment target of Rs 47,000 crore this year.