Bangalore: Finance Minister P Chidambaram has asked the IT department to verify the low tax-paying sectors as this could bring an additional 30,000 crore to the revenue. Though the effective tax rate for companies was 30 percent, but the average tax rate is 24 percent. The following 17 companies are unable to pay this average tax rate and eventually are the lowest taxpaying companies in India, as stated by Rediff. The companies are ranked in an ascending order as per their effective tax rates.

1. Ranbaxy Laboratories

Year End: December 2011

Loss: 2,686 crore

Tax: 218 crore

Effective Tax Rate (In Percent): Nil

Ranbaxy Laboratories is a pharmaceutical company, incorporated in India in 1961. It changed into a public company in 1973 and Japanese pharmaceutical company Daiichi Sankyo took over its majority control in 2008. It exports its products to 125 countries and has manufacturing units located in eight countries. In 2011, the Ranbaxy Global Consumer Health Care was honored with the Pharma Over- The- Country (OTC) Company of the year award.

2. Cairn India

Year End: March 2012

Profit Before Tax: 8,423 crore

Tax: 373 crore

Effective Tax Rate (In Percent): 4.4

Cairn India, headquartered in Gurgaon, is engaged in the business of oil and gas exploration and production. It produces oil and gas from three blocks in India: Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and in Rajasthan. In 2011, top 250 Global Energy Company Rankings by Platts, ranked Cairn India as the World's fastest-growing energy company.