The government’s dividend income for the fiscal is likely to exceed the budget target of Rs 43,000 crore by as much as Rs 20,000 crore, partially filling up the gap in its divestment collections.

In the current financial year, around Rs 20,000 crore has been earned through dividends from the CPSEs, which is 47 per cent of the full-year target, the latest finance ministry data showed.

Officials expressed the confidence that going by the trends so far, the Centre’s dividend receipts in FY24 from CPSEs may be around Rs 60,000 crore, 40 per cent more than the budget estimates.

CPSE dividend receipts in FY23 were around Rs 59,000 crore, 70 per cent of which came in the last five months of the year. This was despite negligible dividends from oil marketing companies (OMCs) as their margins came under pressure because of the freeze in retail fuel prices after the Russia-Ukraine war broke out. OMCs had been paying Rs 6,000-10,000 crore in annual dividends to the Centre.

OMCs have reported robust profits in the first two quarters of FY24. Their profitability surged to Rs 21,500 crore in Q2FY24 from a loss of Rs 600 crore in Q2FY23, owing to strong marketing margins. These firms had also reported a robust Rs 24,300 crore in Q1FY24 against the loss of Rs 8,300 crore in Q1FY23.

However, the profits of these firms may be dented in the coming quarters if crude prices firm up beyond a level and retail fuel prices remain unchanged ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.