Lower advance tax signals the impact of economic slowdown in the firms across different sectors.

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, SAIL and SBI, have paid lower advance taxes during the July-September quarter reflecting the impact of slowdown.

The other large companies which have paid lower taxes during the second quarter include Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, National Aluminium, Hyundai Motors, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam and Bosch. ICICI Bank paid the same amount as last year.

However, on account of increased advance tax payment by certain companies like ONGC, Reliance Industries and Tata Steel , the overall collection from top 100 corporates during the July-September quarter was up by 9.86 per cent as compared to corresponding period last fiscal.

The increase in advance tax realisation during April- September works out to be 12.02 percent, according to the data on top 100 companies tabulated by the I-T department. The data reveals a sharp decline in payment of advance taxes by state-owned petroleum companies which are hit by rising prices of crude in the international market.

While Indian Oil paid no advance tax during the quarter as against Rs 351 crore during the corresponding period last fiscal, payment by Bharat Petroleum declined by 83 per cent to Rs 35 crore during the period.

The slowdown was also witnessed in the auto sector, with Maruti Suzuki paying Rs 120 crore during the second quarter, down 55.88 per cent over last year's. Similarly, advance tax payment by Hyundai declined by 13.52 percent to Rs 81 crore.

Tata Motors showed no increase in payment of advance tax during the second quarter. As per the CBDT data, the net advance tax collection in the first six months of the fiscal stood at Rs 1.8 lakh crore, up 6.6 per cent year-on-year.

In the banking sector, SBI and Oriental Bank of Commerce paid lesser tax in the second quarter of the fiscal over July-September 2010.

On the other hand, tax contribution by Punjab National Bank, HDFC Bank and Canara Bank showed an increase. Advance tax payment by ICICI Bank, however, remained flat at Rs 650 crore.

In the power sector, NTPC's payment increased of 42.49 per cent at Rs 721 crore in the period under review, while that of Neyveli Lignite Corporation was down 50.19 percent. Media house Bennett Coleman & Co paid Rs 80 crore (Rs 80 million) towards advance tax in the second quarter.

It had paid Rs 130 crore in the same quarter last year. The reduction in payment of advance tax by corporates comes at a time when the industrial growth fell to meagre 3.3 percent in July amidst high interest rates.

PTI