India's top-notch public sector units in the financial, power, and energy segments registered exceptional profit expansion in the quarter ended January–March FY 2024–25, providing a crucial pick-up to the Centre's fiscal buoyancy.
Leading the pack were the State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest bank, and insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), with net profits of ₹18,643 crore and ₹19,013 crore, respectively.
SBI’s cumulative profit for the fiscal year surged to ₹70,901 crore, while LIC concluded the year with a strong ₹48,151 crore profit.
In the energy sector, Coal India reported a quarterly net result of ₹9,604 crore. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) came second with ₹7,265 crore, and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), one of the largest players in upstream oil exploration, reported ₹6,448 crore in the quarter.
The power industry also saw healthy performance. India's largest power producer, NTPC, registered a net profit of ₹7,897 crore. Power Finance Corporation (PFC) operating under the Department of Power logged in with ₹8,358 crore, and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. contributed ₹4,143 crore in quarterly profit.
In addition to boosting government coffers with increased dividend payment, the state-owned behemoths also help substantially by making corporate tax payments. Their ambitious capital expenditure programs further propel economic growth and employment generation.
At the same time, the government also achieved its 4.8% of GDP fiscal deficit target for FY 2024–25 according to revised budget estimates, as confirmed by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in figures announced on Friday.
The report by the CGA indicated that the Centre collected ₹30.36 lakh crore from tax and non-tax resources as revenue, which stood at 98.3% of the revised estimates. The majority of non-tax revenue was fueled by the good financial performance of public sector undertakings (PSUs).
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