Top 100 Firms Pay 10 Percent More in Advance Tax in Q2

Mumbai: The overall advance tax realisation from the top 100 companies in the financial capital during the second quarter logged in a healthy 10 percent rise. This was driven by handsome payout by top corporates like SBI, LIC and HDFC Bank, which helped negate a 15 percent drop by the largest corporate RIL. The overall growth in the top 100 corporate tax payers from the metrapolis, which contributes to over 30 percent of income collection annually, comes even as there has been gloomy news on the economic front. On a half-yearly basis, there has been an 11 percent jump among the top 100 list, a senior income tax department official said. Advance tax is a staggered way of paying income taxes through the year to avoid piling up of tax liability for the year-end. It is generally taken as a barometer of corporate earnings for the period. The country's largest lender State Bank's advance tax payment was up 10.30 percent to 1,820 crore from 1,650 crore it had paid a year ago, the official said, adding its competitors ICICI Bank (815 crore against 650 crore) and Bank of Baroda (620 crore against 600 crore) also did well during the reporting period. The second largest private sector lender HDFC Bank, which is the most valued bank by market capitalisation, showed an impressive 37.5 percent rise in payout, with the amount going up to 1,100 crore from 800 crore. For life insurance giant LIC, it jumped to 1,300 crore from 1,160 crore, the official said. However, in the case of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries which is the country's largest company by market value, September quarter tax outgo declined 15 percent to 1,530 crore from 1,800 crore in the year-ago period, the official said. Cement companies, which have otherwise been affected due to sluggish growth on the infrastructure sector, also showed a jump in tax outgoes. While Ultratech posted a 100 percent rise in advance tax payout to 200 crore, Ambuja Cement's 160 crore was an over 68 percent increase as compared to the same period of last year, the official said. It may be noted that the construction sector continued to grow in the second quarter due to the delayed monsoons, which helped the cement sector. The Tata Group company TCS, which is the country's largest software exporter, witnessed a 35 percent increase at 812 crore, while Tata Power's payout rose a tad to 75 crore against 70 crore, and Tata Chemicals paid 60 crore this quarter against 53 crore a year ago. Among other conglomerates, the tax outgo of diversified Aditya Birla Nuvo declined to 30 crore from 32 crore last year, the official said. In the consumer durables space, Hindustan Unilever's outgo jumped massively to 300 crore from 190 crore, while that of Colgate rose to 50 crore from 37 crore, the official said.