Allaying fears of any serious slowdown in the growth momentum, advance tax collections from the top 100 corporates from the nation’s financial capital saw a robust 18 per cent jump in the quarter to September.
The payout list is led by the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries which is reported to have paid Rs 2,000 crore, and the companies in the steel and software spaces besides private banks, according to the sources at the Income Tax Department here on Thursday.
The list of laggards is topped by top lender State Bank of India amidst slowing credit growth, which is said to have paid less this quarter at Rs 1,700 crore against Rs 1,900 crore in the year-ago period, followed by the oil marketing firms which are bleeding due to rising under-recoveries.
Hindustan Petroleum’s advance tax payment came down by a third over the last year to a paltry Rs 30 crore for the September quarter, while its PSU peer Bharat Petroleum saw its tax outgo halving to Rs 100 crore.
Recent macro data like the factory output growth, which fell to a two-year low at 3.3 per cent in August, and repeated comments from India Inc about the difficulties in doing business on the back of high lending rates and a grim global situation, have led to fears about poor financial performances of corporates in the current quarter.
Advance tax payout is a barometer of a company’s performance. RIL, which sold 30 per cent interest in the KG Basin fields to British Petroleum recently, is likely to have paid an advance tax of Rs 2,000 crore against Rs 1,200 crore in the year-ago period, the sources said.
All Tata Group firms, led by TCS (Rs 570 cr vs Rs 270 cr), paid more in taxes this quarter, they said. Tata Steel is said have paid Rs 100 crore more this quarter at Rs 620 crore, the sources said.
In the banking sector, where concerns have been expressed about the shrinking margins and rising bad loans, a majority of the public sector lenders showed flat tax payments but for Bank of Baroda, which is said to have paid Rs 630 crore against Rs 350 crore.
Largest private sector lender ICICI Bank too saw its advance tax outgo remaining flat at Rs 650 crore, while the No 2 HDFC Bank paid more this year, at Rs 800 crore vs Rs 600 crore and YES Bank (Rs 126 crore vs Rs 105 crore) showed an improvement, the sources said.
They added foreign banks too have registered an upswing in tax payouts.
Life insurance giant LIC paid Rs 1,160 crore against Rs 1,050 crore, while General Insurance Corporation paid Rs 130 crore versus last year’s Rs 90 crore.
Similarly auto players, whose full throttle ride seems to have been coming to a halt due to rising interest rates and fuel prices, too have fared poorly this time around. Bajaj Auto is said to have paid Rs 250 crore against Rs 240 crore, utility major Mahindra and Mahindra paid Rs 170 crore versus Rs 160 crore, while the market leader Tata Motors’ payout was flat at Rs 90 crore, the sources said.
Consumer goods major Hindustan Unilever is likely to have paid Rs 200 crore against Rs 150 crore. In the media space, Zee Entertainment’s payment was flat at Rs 50 crore while the Rupert Murdoch-led Star India is estimated to have paid Rs 10 crore versus nil last year, they said.
State-owned monopoly Nuclear Power Corp paid up three times in tax outgo at Rs 150 crore. Crompton Greaves, which was in the news after its promoter group sold shares in the run-up to Q1 earnings, showed a marginal rise in tax outgo at Rs 70 crore versus Rs 68 crore, they said.
