State-run Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML) on Thursday said it has paid Rs 18 crore as 80 per cent dividend to the Union government for fiscal 2016-17.

"The 80 per cent dividend for the last fiscal is the highest in the last five years and as against 40 per cent paid for the fiscal 2015-16," the company said in a statement here.

BEML Chairman and Managing Director Deepak Kumar Hota presented the dividend draft to Defence Minister Nirmala Seetharaman in New Delhi.

The Central government holds majority stake (54 percent) of 2.25 crore equity shares of Rs 10 face value of the company, aggregating to paid-up capital of Rs 22.5 crore.

The remaining equity is held by the public, financial institutions, foreign institutional investors, banks and its employees.

The city-based, Rs 3,500-crore firm serves the country's core military and civil sectors such as defence, infrastructure, mining, power, railways and metro rail.

It operates in three industrial verticals spanning defence, mining and construction, railways and metro rail, with nine manufacturing units at Bengaluru, Kolar Gold Fields and Mysuru in Karnataka, Palakkad in Kerala, Hyderabad in Telangana and Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh.

The company's scrip gained Rs 77.95 to quote at 1,701.95 per share at the end of Thursday's trading on the BSE as against Wednesday's closing rate of Rs. 1,623.90 and opening price of Rs 1,635. The share also touched a high of Rs 1750 and a low of Rs 1,625 during the intra-day trading sessions.