Notwithstanding economic slowdown, the overall advance tax payout by top-100 companies jumped over 10% in the third quarter of the current fiscal and software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reported the maximum hike.
TCS, the country's largest software exporter, paid up Rs 530 crore in the third quarter against Rs 230 crore in the same period last year.
Tata Motors saw the maximum dip (Rs 80 crore Vs Rs 220 crore), according to the Income Tax (I-T) department.
"Overall, the tax payout by the top 100 corporates jumped over 10% this quarter over the year-ago period. This is excluding the oil companies which paid no taxes this time around," a senior I-T official told PTI this evening here, requesting anonymity.
Major tax payers like the largest private sector company Reliance Industries (RIL), State Bank of India (SBI), Tata Motors, and Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) among others, made lower payments this time around.
RIL paid only Rs 1,000 crore for the period against Rs 1,190 crore in the comparable quarter, while SBI paid 1,730 crore, down from Rs 1,860 crore. M&M's payout fell marginally to Rs 220 crore from Rs 230 crore.
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Piramal Healthcare paid no tax this time around against a whopping Rs 1,200 crore last year. So was Reliance Communications, while its sister concern RInfra paid Rs 60 crore against nil in the comparable period.
These numbers come amidst the gloom spreading in the economy: the factory output number for October came as a rude shock. At a contraction of 5.1%, this has been the steepest fall in industrial production since June 2009. Exports too have been falling since the peak in July.