 "Safe-harbour margins may be cut to draw MNCs")
Private lender ICICI bank- have also reported negative number for the September quarter advance tax outgo. It has paid Rs 1,200 crore which was 20 per cent lower than same period a year ago.
In contrast, HDFC Bank was up 20 per cent, paid Rs 2400 crore as against Rs 2,000 crore last year in the same period.
However, top corporates have seen good growth for the second instalments.Advance tax paid by Tata Steel had up 100 per cent followed by India's biggest private company Reliance Industries (RIL) saw its advance tax out go increase 26.5 to Rs 2,667 crore.
Software services major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) paid Rs 1,550 crore as against Rs 1,750 crore a year ago.
Advance tax is a system of staggered payments of income taxes across the year in four quarterly installments. It is generally considered a barometer of a company's performance for a particular quarter.
"The advance tax collections from top banks are disappointing as it adds major part to the government tax revenues. The negative numbers are perhaps sign of cleaning up their bad loans," a senior income tax official told Business Standard.
Indian companies pay income tax every quarter on their projected earnings and these figures are used as a proxy for financial performance estimates, though the actual advance tax payment will be seen in the second quarter of this fiscal," explained officer cited above.
Cement major UltraTech paid Rs 180 crore, up 20 per cent higher compared to the previous year. While HDFC Ltd was advance tax payment also increase 7.5 per cent to Rs 860 crore.
Some PSU banks have posted quite good numbers. For instance Bank of Baroda and Bank of India up 25 per cent respectively. Although, Central bank was down 29.7 per cent.
Yes bank advance outgo for the second quarter was Rs 400 crore from Rs 285 crore in the year ago period, up 40 per cent. Foreign banks had posted mixed numbers. Citi bank and Standard Chartered bank paid Rs 700 crore and Rs 560 crore respectively.
Consumer major Hindustan Unilever reported positive number, paid Rs 500 crore against Rs 460 crore a year ago in the same period.
Auto companies had also shown mixed numbers. Conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra paid tax up by 11.1 per cent, while two-wheeler company Bajaj Auto had paid Rs 390 crore compared to Rs 450 crore it paid last year in same period.Similarly, Pharma major Lupin's advance tax up 24 per cent.
The current advance tax payment schedule for a company is 15%, 45%, 75% and 100% (cumulative) of income tax payable on the full financial year's income to be paid by 15th June, 15th September, 15th December and 15th March, respectively.
