The Finance Ministry today said, it expects the public sector units to pay good amount of dividend in the current fiscal.

Economic Affairs Secretary R Gopalan told reporters in New Delhi, the Ministry is conscious of the fact that they also need resources for their own financing programmes. They also understand our need.

So in the spirit of cooperation we are trying to see how our needs can be met consistent with our requirement. 

Pressed hard for funds, Finance Ministry officials are meeting the heads of PSUs to persuade them to increase dividend payment to the government. 

While a majority of the PSUs said they would retain the dividend paid last year as paying out of their cash reserve would hinder their expansion plans, oil companies hinted that the final dividend would be decided after assessing the under-recoveries and subsidy provided by the government.