State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd Monday reported its highest-ever net profit, record dividend payout and largest-ever capital expenditure of Rs 54,000 crore as it builds infrastructure to take clean fuel to unconnected parts of the country to aid transition to a gas-based economy. The country’s biggest transporter and marketer of natural gas reported that net profit rose 10 per cent in the fourth quarter to Rs 1,122 crore and by 30 per cent to record Rs 6,026 crore in the financial year ended March 31, its Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi told reporters here.
GAIL Board recommended a final dividend of Rs 1.77 per share to take total dividend payout to highest ever of Rs 8.02 per share in the fiscal, he said. “The year saw highest-ever capex (capital expenditure) spending in a single year of Rs 8,344 crore and we are investing another Rs 54,000 crore over the next 2-3 years in laying of gas pipeline network that will feed households and industries such as fertiliser plants,” he said.
