The government may ‘nudge’ private listed companies to increase dividend payouts to investors at a time when their equity portfolio is 'bleeding'.
Arunish Chawla, secretary, Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), told media here on April 9 that the Central Public Sector Entities (CPSEs) have paid record dividend in FY25, and have outpaced the Nifty 50 companies when it comes to dividend payments.
“We would also nudge the private corporate to declare fair dividends to the minority shareholders so that we can make our share markets together a better place for Aam Admi,” Chawla told the media.
His rationale is that at a time when share prices are falling sharply, dividend payouts help minimise the losses to the investors’ portfolio.
Investors have lost 82 lakh crore since 27 September 2024 -- the day the equity market hit a peak. On 27 September, the market capitalisation of all BSE listed companies was Rs 479 lakh crore.
On April 8, the market cap fell to Rs 397 lakh crore. The equity markets have been under a lot of pressure of late due to the ongoing trade war, shaving 6 per cent of Nifty50.
Meanwhile, Secretary DIPAM highlighted the value creation strategy of the Public sector enterprises. He mentioned CPSEs have distributed record dividends in 2024-15, amounting to Rs 1.5 lakh crore in aggregate, of which the government received Rs 74,016 crore.
He also pointed out that while the market cap of CPSEs is only 10 per of the overall market cap, they distributed 25 per cent of the overall dividend.
The DIPAM secretary also said that he has been talking to the mutual funds and their fund managers to allocate more money to PSUs given the performance of the government-owned companies.
“We would suggest the fund managers include PSE stocks in their portfolios so that common investors, senior citizens and minority shareholders can deploy their savings productively,” said the DIPAM Secretary.