By IANS,
New Delhi : Almost 10 percent of the government’s tax receipts come from just 41 companies, a survey has revealed. The report was released here Saturday.
The Total Tax Contribution Survey-2008, carried out jointly by the industry lobby Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and auditing major PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), showed that 41 companies contributed 9.7 percent of total government tax receipts.
The surveyors quizzed over 100 companies on various tax issues.
These companies are part of the S&P CNX Nifty and CNX Nifty Junior list on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), and represent 55 percent of the total market capitalisation and 54 percent of the total turnover of the 100 companies identified.
“The impact of taxation in India is manifested by the average amount of total taxes borne and collected by the 41 participating companies, i.e. 16 percent of their turnover,” said PwC executive director Ketan Dalal.
“This is further substantiated by the average Total Tax Rate (TTR) of the participating companies, which is 35.9 percent of profit before all business taxes borne,” he added.
The survey identified a total of 23 business taxes at the central and the state level.
“There is a need to increase the tax base by providing growth incentives for SMEs (small and medium enterprises) and providing investment related incentives to large corporates especially in the current economic environment,” FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra said.
Added Dalal: “It’s important also for companies themselves to be aware of all the taxes that they pay when making commercial decisions in the context of specific transactions, and also regarding their business models in general.”