Dividends are the special rewards that a company gives to its shareholders from the profit it has made. When the company makes profits, it either reinvests it into the business for growth or distributes profits with its shareholders. Some companies do a bit of both. This sharing of profits with shareholders is what we call dividends.
NEW DELHI: Seeking to deal with environmentally hazardous fly ash generated from coal and lignite based thermal power plants (TPPs), the Centre has made it mandatory for such plants to ensure 100% utilisation of fly ash within three to five years. It also, for the first time, introduced fines on noncompliant plants under the ‘polluter pays principle’, taking into account utilisation targets from April 1 next year.
Under the draft plan, notified by the environment ministry last week, non-compliant TPPs will have to pay a fine of Rs 1,000 per tonne on unutilised ash which is to be accounted at the end of every financial year based on annual reports. Though fly ash utilisation in India has increased from nearly 10% in 1996-97 to the highest level of over 83% during 2019-20, unutilised ash gets dumped in an environmentally hazardous manner, polluting air, water and soil.