GAIL pays Rs 484.94 crore dividend to govt

New Delhi, Sept 1 (UNI) GAIL (India) Ltd paid a total dividend of of Rs 96.98 crore to the government today.

Gail India Chairman and Managing Director, S P Rao handed over a cheque of Rs 96.98 crore to Secretary, Petroleum and NAtural Gas M S Srinivasan, here today, towards final dividend payment for the financial year ended on March 31,2006.

Additional Secretary Petroleum, Anil Razdan, and senior officers of GAIL including Director, Business Development B S Negi and Director (HR) M R Hingnikar and Director (Finance) R K Goel, were also present at the occasion.

With this payment, GAIL has contributed to the exchequer, an aggregate sum of Rs 484.94 crore towards dividend for the financial year 2005-06. Of this interim dividend amounting to Rs 291 crore in January 2006 and Rs 96.96 crore in February 2006 were paid to the government, earlier. The dividend payment during financial year 2005-06 represents a payout ratio of 42 per cent.

GAIL has a consistent track record of dividend payment. So far, it has disbursed dividend of Rs 4,540 crore to the shareholders including Government of India, which is more than five times the original investment of Rs 845.32 crore by the Government in the equity capital of GAIL. The government holds 57.345 per cent equity in the company.

UNI/RT CS RS1425