[Reader-list] Top 100 tax defaulters owe Rs 1.41 lakh cr to Govt

[Taha Mehmood]

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/top-100-tax-defaulters-owe-rs-141-lakh-cr-to-govt/98586-7.html

GOVT REVEALS ALL

Top 100 tax defaulters owe Rs 1.41 lakh cr to Govt

Press Trust Of India

New Delhi: Country's largest state-owned bank State Bank of India
(SBI), automobile giant Tata Motors and oil major Indian Oil
Corporation, besides Sahara India and its promoter Subroto Roy figure
in the list of top 100 tax defaulters in the country.

Disclosing the list of defaulters in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the
Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam said in a written
reply that top 100 tax defaulters owe to the exchequer Rs 1.41 lakh
crore - more than three times the amount the government spends on
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme annually to
provide employment to Below Poverty Line families.

The Centre is taking various steps to recover the outstanding dues,
the Minister said, adding that the government has requested the
adjudicating authorities like ITAT and Settlement Commission "to
dispose of high demand cases expeditiously."

As per the list, disgraced stud farm owner Hassan Ali Khan tops the
list of tax defaulters with an outstanding arrear of more than Rs
50,000 crore.

The list of tax defaulters also includes stock broker late Harshad
Mehta and his associates and other brokers like AD Narrotam and Hiten
Dalal.

While the SBI owes Rs 333.6 crore in taxes, Tata Motors and Indian Oil
Corporation have to pay Rs 206.5 crore and Rs 210.3 crore to the
treasury.

As regards Sahara, many of its group companies figure in the list of
defaulters, while its promoter Roy owes Rs 230 crore to the exchequer.

Among leading public sector undertakings, BSNL has a tax demand of
about Rs 2,417 crore, while NTPC faces a demand for Rs 622 crore. VSNL
Ltd (now Tata Communications Ltd) has a tax demand of about Rs 505.5
crore.

Among Sahara group companies, Sahara India and Sahara Airlines (now
Jetlite) figure among tax defaulters apart from Sahara India Financial
Corporation Ltd.

Besides, corporates which owe taxes to the government are Coca Cola
India (Rs 600 crore), Baron International (Rs 589 crore), Oracle
Corporation (Rs 558 crore), Rolex Holding Ltd (Rs 558 crore), Aaditya
Luxury Hotels (564 crore) and Reliance Energy (Rs 176 crore).

Nokia, Daewoo Motors, Bunge India Ltd, Tata Industries, Satyam
Computers and IBM Pvt Ltd are other companies which have been named on
the list.

The Minister said that these tax demands also include those which are
difficult to recover for various reasons like demands notified under
Special Court, inadequate assets and companies under litigation.

However, among special measures being taken by the government to
expedite recovery of default taxes includes monitoring of the recovery
of amount in large cases by a Task Force. "Invariably arrear demand
above Rs 25 crore is monitored by CBDT and between 10 crore and 25
crore by CCIT/DIT (Recovery)," the Minister said.