Vedanta declares Rs 11/share interim dividend; total payout at Rs 4,300 crore

The company has fixed Saturday, March 28, as the record date for determining shareholders’ eligibility to receive the dividend payout.

The decision was taken in a board meeting held on Monday, and the company informed the exchanges during the market hours.

Vedanta shares today fell 6% to hit the day’ low of Rs 634.25 on the NSE amid a bloodbath on the D-Street. The heartbeat Nifty index fell 640 points or 2.8% intraday to hit the day’s low of 22,471.25.

Vedanta dividend history

The Anil Agarwal-promoted company has declared 49 dividends since July 23, 2001, according to Trendlyne data. In the past 12 months, Vedanta has declared an equity dividend amounting to Rs 23 per share. At the current share price, Vedanta’s dividend yield is 3.59%.

Vedanta shares have delivered nearly 40% returns over a one-year period, outperforming the benchmarks Nifty and the BSE Sensex, whose returns are nearly -3% and -5%, respectively, in the same period. However, the shares have seen a 5% over the past month, largely on the back of the ongoing Iran-Israel war, which is now in its fourth week. Apart from unfavourable market sentiments, Monday’s weakness can also be attributed to the order of the Supreme Court last week, which upheld the Bombay High Court’s ruling that the conglomerate is not entitled to procure high-speed diesel (HSD) at concessional rates against Form C.

The high court had found that Vedanta used HSD for purposes other than mining, including resale to transporters and private parties. It noted that the company’s tax registration certificate restricted the use of fuel to running and maintenance of machinery for mining and processing iron ore for sale.

Vedanta had obtained tax registration under the Goa Value Added Tax Act and the Central Sales Tax Act, which was renewed periodically. However, after the introduction of the compiled GST regime in 2017, the company migrated to the new system but continued to pay central sales tax on HSD purchases and retained its VAT registration.

Tax authorities denied Form C to Vedanta, stating that the company had ceased to be a dealer under the Central Sales Tax Act and that its registration had become infructuous. Vedanta was trying to use Form C in order to avoid local value-added tax of 19% on diesel purchased from Karnataka by availing a concessional rate of 2%, the tax department argued.

The court held that the registration certificate allowed concessional diesel only for running mining machinery, not for resale or supply to third-party transporters. The shares of the company plunged 5% to trade at Rs 637, the lowest level seen by the stock since February 1 this year.