India’s largest state-owned bank, SBI, automobile giant Tata Motors and oil major Indian Oil Corporation, besides Sahara India and its promoter Subroto Roy, figure in the list of top 100 tax defaulters in the country.
Disclosing the list of defaulters in the Rajya Sabha today, the Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written reply that top 100 tax defaulters owed to the exchequer a whopping Rs 1.41 lakh crore — more than three times the amount the government spends on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme annually.
The Centre is taking various steps to recover the outstanding dues, the minister said, adding that the government had requested the adjudicating authorities like ITAT and Settlement Commission “to dispose of high-demand cases expeditiously”.
According to the list, disgraced stud farm owner Hassan Ali Khan tops the list of tax defaulters, with an outstanding arrear of more than Rs 50,000 crore.
The list of tax defaulters also includes stock brokers Harshad Mehta and his associates and other brokers like A D Narrotam and Hiten Dalal.
While SBI owes Rs 333.6 crore in taxes, Tata Motors and Indian Oil Corporation have to pay Rs 206.5 crore and Rs 210.3 crore, respectively, to the treasury.
As regards Sahara India, many of its group companies figure in the list of defaulters, while its promoter Subroto Roy owes Rs 230 crore to the exchequer.
Among leading public sector undertakings, BSNL has an outstanding tax liability of about Rs 2,417 crore and NTPC of Rs 622 crore. VSNL Ltd (now Tata Communications Ltd) has Rs 505.5 crore due.
Among Sahara group companies, Sahara India and Sahara Airlines (now Jetlite) figure among tax defaulters apart from Sahara India Financial Corporation Ltd.
Besides, companies that owe taxes to the government are Coca Cola India (Rs 600 crore), Baron International (Rs 589 crore), Oracle Corporation (Rs 558 crore), Rolex Holding Ltd (Rs 558 crore), Aaditya Luxury Hotels (564 crore) and Reliance Energy (Rs 176 crore).
