Higher advance tax payment normally indicates higher profit for the period under review.
Companies from across the sectors paid up more in advance tax this quarter than the year-ago period, except cement companies which had a poor showing. Reliance Industries, which has been among the top five tax payers, paid ` 900 crore, against ` 650 crore in the same quarter last year. Among auto companies, barring the largest player Tata Motors, which saw its tax bill dipping a tad to ` 62 crore from ` 65 crore, all reported higher numbers. Bajaj Auto paid ` 125 crore from ` 110 crore, M&M paid nearly 50% more at ` 90 crore from ` 63 crore. Pure-play mortgage lender HDFC saw its tax bill rising to ` 250 crore from ` 215 crore in the reporting period. Aluminium major Hindalco's tax bill rose to ` 80 crore against ` 55 crore. So did the engineering behemoth L&T, which coughed up ` 175 crore in advance taxes, up from ` 130 crore. Similarly, consumer goods leader HUL, too, saw its tax bill jumping to ` 100 crore from ` 75 crore. Bharat Petroleum paid a little more than half of what it had paid last time at ` 77 crore, against ` 126 crore. Bharti Airtel advance tax reportedly fell 5.55% to ` 170 crore in Q1 June 2011 over Q1 June 2010. NTPC advance tax reportedly rose 28.57% to ` 360 crore in Q1 June 2011 over Q1 June 2010. Cement players saw their tax outgo shrinking. ACC saw its tax bill declining to ` 45 crore from ` 50 crore, Gujarat Ambuja too paid up less at ` 50 crore (` 65 crore), while UltraTech bucked the trend with a sharp spike in its tax bill at ` 37 crore against ` 22 crore. State Bank of India (SBI) paid ` 1,100 crore against ` 850 crore in the year-ago period. While the largest private sector lender ICICI Bank paid ` 390 crore against ` 350 crore an year ago, the immediate competition HDFC Bank coughed up ` 400 crore as compared to ` 315 crore in the corresponding period an year ago. TCS saw its tax bill nearly doubling to ` 240 crore in the reporting period from ` 128 crore in the year-ago quarter.
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