Advance Tax Update

The corporate advance tax collections have exceeded 20% growth in the first nine months of FY10, while the direct tax collections from top 100 corporates have registered 30% rise over the same period last year. Automobiles, consumer goods and metals have led the pack of industries which paid highest taxes in Q3FY10. Advance tax payments by industries increased to Rs. 1.13 lakh crore from Rs. 0.94 lakh crore in the year-ago period. Among the major companies, SBI paid an Rs. 46.95 bn advance tax till Dec’09, as against Rs. 39.23 bn in the year-ago period, while ONGC paid Rs. 37.13 bn (Rs. 41.23 bn) and RIL paid Rs. 23.05 bn (Rs. 14.75 bn). Other top payers include: SAIL (Rs. 22.63 bn), Maruti Udyog (Rs. 7.57 bn) and Bajaj Auto (Rs. 5.4 bn). Meanwhile, the Government expects the direct tax collections for the current fiscal to well exceed the budget target of Rs. 3.7 lakh crore.