100 Biggest Tax Evaders Owe Whopping Rs 1.41 Lakh Crores to Exchequer
In the list of the 100 biggest tax defaulters of the country issued on Tuesday figures State Bank of India (SBI), automobile giant Tata Motors and oil major Indian Oil Corporation, Sahara India and its promoter Subroto Roy.
The Minister of State for Finance S S Palanimanickam, while disclosing the list in Rajya Sabha, said in a written reply that the country’s top 100 tax defaulters owe to exchequer Rs 1.41 lakh crore, which is, incidentally more than three times the amount the central government spends on National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA).
The minister said that the government is taking various measures to recover these outstanding dues and has requested the adjudicating authorities like ITAT and Settlement Commission “to dispose of high demand cases expeditiously”.
Disgraced stud farm owner Hassan Ali Khan, as the list shows, tops the tax defaulters with an outstanding arrear of more than Rs 50, 000 crore.
In the list are more other faces like Harshad Mehta and his associates and brokers like AD Narrotam and Hiten Dalal.
According to information contained in the list, the SBI owes Rs 333.6 crore in taxes, Tata Motors and Indian Oil Corporation Rs 206.5 crore and Rs 210.3 crore respectively to the treasury.
As far as Sahara is concerned, many of its group companies figure in the list of defaulters and its promoter Roy has an outstanding due of Rs 230 crore.
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.
In addition, 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.
