Non-financial firms top advance tax charts

Tata Steel, Asian Paints, RIL post biggest growth

The advance tax payments by a sample of the top companies, excluding banks and finance companies based in Mumbai, have seen good growth for the first instalment on

Wednesday. However, overall advance tax payment for the quarter remained flat, due to dip in public sector banks’ numbers. Manufacturing and services companies have reported positive number for the June quarter advance tax outgo.

Advance tax paid by Tata Steel was up 61.9 per cent in the first quarter of FY17, compared to last year.

India’s biggest private sector firm Reliance Industries saw its advance tax payment go up by 22.6 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1,300 crore, followed by software services major Tata Consultancy Services, which paid 14 per cent more advance tax at Rs 900 crore over last year.

Cement major UltraTech paid Rs 90 crore, up 12.5 per cent higher, compared to the previous year. Engineering giant Larsen & Toubro paid Rs 110 crore in June, against Rs 130 crore a year ago.

The country’s largest lender State Bank of India paid Rs 1,000 crore this year, lower compared to the Rs 1,290 crore it paid last June.

Central Bank of India’s advance tax payment was also 25 per cent lower at Rs 90 crore. In private sector lenders, ICICI Bank’s Rs 700 crore payment was 17.6 per cent lower than last year.

Other private sector banks have done better on the advance tax payment. Both HDFC Bank and YES Bank had a 20 per cent YoY increase in their advance tax outgo at Rs 1,200 crore and Rs 205 crore, respectively.

Foreign banks posted mixed numbers. Citibank’s outgo was up three per cent YoY to Rs 360 crore, while Standard Chartered advance tax reduced by 17 per cent to Rs 300 crore.

For India’s biggest mortgage lender HDFC, the advance tax payment remained unchanged at Rs 465 crore for the June 15 instalment.

Consumer behemoth Hindustan Unilever reported an increase in advance tax to Rs 250 crore, against Rs 230 crore a year ago. Asian Paints’ outgo increased 35 per cent to Rs 115 crore.

Auto firms reported mixed numbers. Conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra’s outgo increased by four per cent, while Bajaj Auto had paid Rs 220 crore, compared to Rs 230 crore it paid last year. Similarly, pharma firms have reported mixed numbers. Pharma major Lupin’s advance tax was up 17.4 per cent to Rs 135 crore, while Cipla’s outgo went down from Rs 75 crore to Rs 30 crore, a dip of 60 per cent.