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- To become an asset: the Federation Council proposed to leave state-owned companies with dividends going to the budget
To become an asset: the Federation Council proposed to leave state-owned companies with dividends going to the budget
The senators proposed to leave dividends at the disposal of companies with state participation, which are usually sent to the budget. It is assumed that these funds will be used for development and investment projects. The resolution of the upper house of parliament has already been sent to relevant departments, Izvestia has learned. The initiative will not affect private investors, but will allow the largest companies to receive additional resources for new projects, repayment of costs, and so on. Last year, the treasury received over 700 billion rubles from dividends, and in 2025 the figure may be twice as high. This is a significant amount with a budget deficit of 4.2 trillion rubles in January–August. Izvestia investigated whether the government's financial block would support the initiative.
Changes in the dividend policy of state-owned companies
The Federation Council proposed to fix the priority direction of dividends of joint-stock companies for investment activities. We are talking about shares that are owned by the state. The resolution signed by Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko has been sent to relevant departments, and Izvestia has reviewed the document. According to a source in government agencies, the issue is under study and elaboration.
— The measure being worked out in the Federation Council is aimed at strengthening the Russian economy and its key industries: oil and gas, banking, transport and others. The funds of the largest market participants will be used for business development, new projects, cost recovery, and so on. At the same time, it is important to understand that the interests of private investors will not be affected, we are talking only about dividends that would be paid to the state shareholder," Deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy Yuri Fedorov told Izvestia.
For the companies themselves, this approach can give a plus in financial and operational stability, they will have additional funds for investments, the senator added. At the same time, as a source in government agencies noted to Izvestia, in conditions of budget deficit, it will be difficult to coordinate the innovation with the Ministry of Finance, since stock dividends are one of the components of state revenues.
Izvestia sent inquiries to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development.
In total, in 2024, the state received more than 700 billion rubles in dividends from its shares, and in 2025 this figure may be doubled due to the resumption of payments by those companies that did not pay them in previous years, Alexander Schneiderman, head of Alfa-Forex's customer support and sales department, told Izvestia. He added that among the largest assets of the state are 60.9% of VTB Bank, 50% + one share of Sberbank, 50.2% of Gazprom and others.
Izvestia sent inquiries to the largest companies and banks with state participation.
— The payment of dividends in companies with state participation is always a certain conflict of interest between investment, fiscal and corporate tasks, which arises already due to the direct participation of the state in the capital, — said Dmitry Tortev, a member of the expert council of the State Duma Committee for the Protection of Competition.
Today, there are more than 500 organizations with state participation, and, as a rule, these are backbone enterprises that influence the country's economy. However, the overwhelming amount of dividends (more than 90%) to the federal budget is always provided by 15-20 companies. A little more is represented on the stock exchange — about 40 organizations, he explained. At the same time, the value of state shares in public companies is significant, amounting to about 12 trillion rubles in the oil and gas, financial, energy and other sectors, the expert estimated.
What could be the budget deficit of the Russian Federation
The Ministry of Finance previously reported that the federal budget deficit for the period from January to August 2025 reached 4,193 trillion rubles. In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law to adjust its parameters. According to the document, revenues were reduced from 40.296 trillion rubles (18.8% of GDP) to 38.506 trillion rubles (17.4% of GDP), and expenditures were increased from 41.469 trillion rubles (19.3% of GDP) to 42.298 trillion rubles (19.1% of GDP). As a result, the planned budget deficit was increased from 0.5% to 1.7% of GDP.
Today, there is a mechanism for refusing to pay dividends to shareholders, which many large state-owned companies have used: the decision is made at the level of the board of directors and the shareholders' meeting, said Andrey Loboda, a top manager in the field of financial communications. However, in this case, not only the state remains without them, but also private investors (individuals), therefore, the innovation of the Federation Council, when studied in detail, will allow, on the one hand, to distinguish the categories of owners of shares and preserve payments to ordinary citizens, and on the other hand, to provide support to those companies that need it most, the expert believes.
In addition, the support of Russian organizations is especially important against the background of sanctions, when businesses have to work in new conditions and look for new sources of financing, he added.
Among the largest players in the Russian market in recent years, a number of state-owned companies have limited their dividend payments. Gazprom refused to make final payments in 2022, citing investments and an increase in the tax burden.
—In 2025, the company again did not pay dividends for 2024, then the market took it painfully, but Gazprom had free resources for capital investments and debt servicing," said Vladimir Chernov, analyst at Freedom Finance Global.
The government formed a unified approach to dividends from state—owned companies — 50% of adjusted net profit under IFRS - in June 2021. Those organizations that are not required to provide data according to international financial reporting standards must pay at least 50% of net profit in the form of dividends according to RAS standards. In 2020, the Accounting Chamber estimated that the majority (97%) of the state was brought by 20 joint—stock companies - only 2% of the total. At the same time, over 500 companies in 2017-2019 did not bring any funds to the budget at all.
In 2022, on behalf of the government, Sberbank froze dividends for 2021 in order to strengthen capital and support lending to the economy, and later returned to payments and fixed a target of 50% of profits. In recent years, Aeroflot has also allocated funds not to shareholders, but to restore its business and upgrade its fleet. In different periods, Transneft has balanced between high dividends and the implementation of the investment program, which clearly shows the constant contradiction between the interests of the budget and the market, he added.
At the same time, a number of large Russian companies with state participation continue to regularly pay dividends. In 2025, VTB paid a record dividend of 25.58 rubles per share and a yield of 26%. Rosneft also continues to adhere to this policy, making payments continuously since 2000. In August 2025, it completed the payment of final dividends approved by the annual shareholders' meeting: their total amount for 2024 amounted to 542 billion rubles, or 51.15 rubles per security, said Igor Sechin, Chairman of the company's Management Board.
However, in general, the refusal to pay dividends and their direction for development has long been a well—established global practice of large organizations, said Mikhail Khachaturian, Associate Professor at the Department of Strategic and Innovative Development at the Financial University. However, this measure is usually temporary (up to three to four years) and voluntary. After all, the key objective of the existence of any joint-stock company is to increase its own efficiency and the well-being of its shareholders by allocating part of the income to dividend payments.
— In this sense, the refusal of payments is an extraordinary action that the company's management is forced to resort to when it is impossible to use other sources of project financing, — said Mikhail Khachaturian.
For the companies themselves, the approach discussed in the Federation Council will give financial and operational stability — the debt burden will decrease, additional resources will be available for the implementation of large infrastructure and investment projects, and the credit rating is likely to increase, Vladimir Chernov noted. This will allow them to borrow less on the market and go through stress periods more stably.
At the same time, the main thing for the market will not be the fact that dividends will be cut, but the quality of the investment programs to which they will be directed, and their real payback, the expert concluded.
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