India Inc shells out Rs 1.75 lakh cr for taxes in FY'08

Corporate India shelled out Rs 1,75,428 crore as taxes, including corporate tax and the Fringe Benefit Tax, in 2007-08 financial year.     

For the purpose of estimating the tax expenditure, data pertaining to 4,10,451 companies with a total income of Rs 4,79,898 crore during 2007-08 were analysed in the Budget for 2009-10.     

"These companies paid Rs 1,58,225 crore as corporate tax (inclusive of surcharge and education cess) during the same financial year (2007-08)," the Budget document stated.     

"These companies also paid Rs 6,533 crore as Fringe Benefit Tax and Rs 10,670 crore as Dividend Distribution Tax during the year," it added.     

The total tax expenditure for Corporate India comes out to Rs 1,75,428 crore in the reviewed fiscal.     

The companies reported Rs 7,11,557 crore as profits before taxes (excluding the loss-making companies) in 2007-08.     

In a comparison of the effective tax rate of public sector companies with that of private sector ones, the document said, "It is evident that the public companies pay a larger proportion of their profits as tax than the private companies."

In the Budget for 2009-10, a sample of 1,808 public sector companies and 4,07,765 private sector firms was taken.     

The analysis revealed that private firms accounted for 75.06 per cent, while public firms contributed 24.94 per cent of the total tax payable by the companies.     

"While the manufacturing sector has a higher effective tax rate and is paying more tax than the service sector, both the sectors have an effective tax rate that is way below the statutory rate of 33.99 per cent."