By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 18, 2016 : National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), the Navratna public sector unit, has declared an interim dividend of 25%, i.e. Rs.1.25 per share of Rs.5 each, amounting to Rs.322.16 crore for the financial year 2015-16, on the paid-up equity share capital of Rs.1288.62 crore.

Nalco chairman and managing director, Tapan Kumar Chand on Monday handed over the cheque of Rs 260.72 crore to union minister of steel and mines Narendra Singh Tomar at New Delhi in the presence of unon mines secretary, Balvinder Kumar, as interim dividend on the 80.93% shares held by the Govt of India.

The Union Minister Mr. Tomar had a word of praise for the effective functioning of Nalco despite sluggishness in the market. Particularly, he was appreciative of the company’s all-time high bauxite production of 63.40 lakh tons and 19.53 lakh tons of alumina in 2015-16.

Nalco, which started its commercial operations in 1987 has been earning profits consistently and has been declaring dividends since 1992. In 2014-15 fiscal, the company had declared a total dividend of Rs.451.02 crore.

Since its inception, Nalco has paid a total of Rs.5679 crore as dividend including Rs.4860 crore as share of the union government.