Top Mumbai cos pay 5% more advance tax in Q2
New Delhi   19-Sep-2010

Advance tax payments made by the top Mumbai-based companies have shown a marginal increase of five per cent for the September quarter. This, observers say, reflects a sense of uncertainty in economic growth. Mumbai circle accounts for nearly 45 per cent of annual corporate tax collections.

The top 80 companies in the Mumbai circle increased their advance tax payout to Rs 14,273 crore in the September quarter , against Rs 13,598 crore in the same period last year, according to details obtained from the Income-Tax Department.

Collections in the first half of this fiscal from these companies are up nine per cent at Rs 21,931 crore (Rs 20,128 crore). The Centre plans to mop up Rs 3.01 lakh crore corporate tax this fiscal, 20 per cent more than last year's Rs 2.5 lakh crore.

Five companies from the construction, pharmaceuticals and NBFC (non-banking financial company) sectors showed a higher advance tax outgo, while some from cement, petroleum and chemicals trimmed their payout.

For Tata group companies, it was a mixed bag. Tata Motors and Tata Power made lower payments of Rs 95 core (Rs 130 crore) and Rs 60 crore (Rs 75 crore) respectively, while Tata Chemicals paid the same as last year's Rs 60 crore. Tata Steel, on the other hand, increased its tax outgo to Rs 500 crore (Rs 400 crore) and TCS to Rs 260 crore (Rs 220 crore).

In line with the revival in vehicle demand, payouts by Bajaj Auto and M&M increased to Rs 243 crore (Rs 170 crore) and Rs 158 crore (Rs 112 crore) respectively.

Real-estate companies also contributed to the advance tax kitty. Peninsula Land coughed up Rs 22 crore and Oberoi Realty Rs 21 crore. Both made their debut in the first quarter of this fiscal. Oberoi Construction raised its payout to Rs 27 crore from Rs 25 crore last year.

Cement companies, however, paid lower advance tax. The two Holcim-owned companies, Ambuja Cement and ACC, lowered their outgo to Rs 90 crore (Rs 150 crore) and Rs 60 crore (Rs 150 crore) each, while for Aditya Birla-owned UltraTech Cement and Grasim Industries, the payment was down to Rs 60 crore (Rs 125 crore) and Rs 80 crore (Rs 200 crore) respectively. Lafarge's was lower at Rs 40 crore (Rs 67 crore).

IndianOil more than halved its tax payout to Rs 351 crore (Rs 1,100 crore) while Bharat Petroleum Corporation paid Rs 206 crore (Rs 312 crore). However, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation's outgo increased to Rs 112 crore (Rs 48 crore) as also Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals' to Rs 148 crore (Rs 100 crore) and Castrol's to Rs 70 crore (Rs 58 crore).