Advance tax payment increases; SBI pays Rs 1,100 cr

Notwithstanding a massive fall in factory output growth rate in April, advance tax pay-up by India Inc for the first quarter of the fiscal has increased, led by SBI with its Rs 1,100 crore against Rs 850 crore in the year-ago period, easing concerns of economic slowdown.

Income Tax Department sources said on Wednesday that oil and gas major RIL has paid Rs 900 crore in the April-June, 2011 period, up nearly 50 per cent from Rs 650 crore in the same quarter previous fiscal.

Companies from across the sectors paid up more in advance tax this quarter than the year-ago period, except cement companies which had a poor showing.

The third in the list is the insurance giant LIC, which made an advance tax payment of Rs 580 crore in the quarter, against Rs 530 crore last fiscal.

Largest software exporter TCS saw its tax bill nearly doubling to Rs 240 crore in the reporting period from Rs 128 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The fourth in the list is the state-run Deposit Insurance & Credit Guarantee Corporation which saw an outgo of Rs 475 crore against Rs 400 crore last time.

Banks, too, barring a few state-run ones, have paid up more. Leading foreign lender Citibank saw its advance tax outgo jumping 50 per cent to Rs 150 crore from Rs 100 crore, state-run IDBI Bank saw the tax bill soaring over 125 per cent to Rs 180 crore as against Rs 81 crore in the first quarter last year.

The second largest foreign bank HSBC, too, paid up more, with a tax outgo of Rs 250 crore against Rs 225 crore a year ago.

State-run lenders like Bank of India paid Rs 165 crore against Rs 158 crore, Bank of Baroda doled out Rs 250 crore as against Rs 225 crore, Dena Bank around Rs 55 crore against Rs 45 crore, while Central Bank of India saw its advance tax payout declining to Rs 145 crore against Rs 150 crore.

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