Advance tax payment by SBI dips to Rs 1,701 cr, HDFC up at Rs 560 cr

State Bank of India has paid marginally lower advance tax in the third quarter at Rs 1,701 crore against Rs 1,730 crore in the corresponding period last year, tax officials said today.

The dip, which comes amidst gloomy economic climate, was also reported by SBI's peer Bank of India, which paid Rs 120 crore in the reported quarter against Rs 125 crore it paid in the year-ago period.

Bank of Baroda and Central Bank, however, paid higher advance tax this quarter. While Bank of Baroda paid Rs 550 crore compared to Rs 525 crore in the corresponding period last year, Central Bank paid Rs 120 crore against Rs 104 crore last quarter.

Mortgage major HDFC paid Rs 560 crore in advance tax against Rs 475 crore last year, up 18 per cent over corresponding quarter, they said.

Although the deadline for filing advance tax returns is December 15, some companies opted to make the payment today due to week-end consideration.

Advance tax is a staggered way of paying income taxes through the year. It is generally taken as a barometer to a company's earnings for the period.

Life insurance giant LIC's housing finance subsidiary LICHF is understood to have paid Rs 113 crore compared to Rs 91 crore last year.

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro paid Rs 333 crore against Rs 350 crore while Aditya Birla Group company Ultratech paid Rs 250 crore against Rs 320 crore in the year-ago period.

Mumbai, the financial capital, contributes over a third of the overall direct tax collection. The I-T department is targeting to collect Rs 1,78,453 crore from the city this fiscal, a 13.5 per cent jump over last year.

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