NEW DELHI, JUNE 16
The economy is on an upswing, with top 100 corporates paying nearly 19 per cent more in advance tax in Q1, on the top of the indirect taxes mop-up jumping 49 per cent in the first two months of this fiscal.
The country’s top 100 companies, led by ONGC and Reliance Industries, have paid Rs 12,661.73 crore in advance tax to the government in the first quarter, which is a robust 18.68 per cent jump over the same period last fiscal, say Finance Ministry sources.
However, the high economic activity is not witnessed across the board as some large corporates like State Bank, Grasim Industries, ACC, Ambuja Cement, Siemens, Deutsche Bank, Barclays Bank, and Bank of America, paid less tax to the Exchequer compared to the year-ago period, the sources said.
Economists opined that the healthy tax mobilization numbers underline the robust economic and industrial activities and the economy as a whole is on a solid trajectory to achieve 8.5 per cent GDP growth target.
The oil and gas major ONGC paid the highest tax at Rs 1,093 crore, up 24.20 per cent from Rs 880 it had paid in the first quarter of the last fiscal, the sources said.
This is followed by the country’s largest lender SBI which has paid Rs 869 crore, which is a steep 18.63 per cent less than Rs 1,068 crore it had paid in Q1 last fiscal.
Reliance Industries’ tax outgo stood at Rs 653 crore this quarter, more than double the Rs 314-crore it had paid in the same period last fiscal.
Other major taxpayers include LIC, BHEL, SAIL, NMDC, HDFC Bank and Punjab National Bank.
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Ahmedabad that “the direct taxes are progressive in so far as taxes collected from the rich and affluent can be used for the betterment of the underprivileged and development of the society at large.”
The government proposes to collect Rs 3.01 lakh crore as corporate tax during the current fiscal, up from Rs 2.5 lakh crore in the previous fiscal.
The indirect taxes mop-up, which include Customs and Excise duties as well as service tax, too went up by 49 per cent to Rs 35,000 crore during April-May period of this fiscal against Rs 23,420 crore in the same period last fiscal.
Higher tax revenue mirrored the sustained high industrial growth in the country. Industrial production zoomed up by 17.6 per cent in April, the first month of this fiscal, against a paltry 1.1 per cent in the same period a year ago.
The GDP during the current fiscal is estimated to grow by 8.5 per cent from 7.4 per cent last fiscal.
