The auto pack has put up a strong show on the advance tax front this fiscal, with the payouts of most auto majors registering increases between 19 and 1,524 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
The fourth instalment (March 15) payouts increased 115-576 per cent for most companies on
the back of pick-up in sales in January and February this year, as customers rushed to beat an expected hike in prices soon after the Budget.
Maruti Udyog, the country’s largest car manufacturer, has forked out an advance tax of Rs 1,007 crore in 2009-10, more than double the payout of Rs 401 crore in 2008-09. For the March 15 instalment this year, Maruti’s advance tax payout was Rs 250 crore (Rs 36.6 crore), the latest data available with the Revenue Department showed.
Tata Motors, which did not pay any advance tax in the fourth instalment of 2008-09, has paid Rs 115 crore in the March 15 instalment this year. For financial year 2009-10, the advance tax payout of Tata Motors stood at Rs 445 crore (Rs 90 crore).
Mahindra & Mahindra’s advance tax payout registered a huge jump in 2009-10 to Rs 560.5 crore (Rs 34.5 crore). For the fourth instalment, the payout was Rs 236 crore (Nil for March 15, 2009)
The strong show on the advance tax front could be a signal that these companies expect to close the current fiscal with better bottom line performance than last fiscal, when the global financial crisis had cast a shadow on their growth performance.
The auto industry recorded the highest ever sales for a month in February 2010 at 11.29 lakh units (11.14 lakh units in January 2010). The domestic passenger car segment recorded the eleventh straight month of growth in February at 1.54 lakh units (1.16 lakh units in February 2009).
Most auto majors had passed on to the customers the excise duty hike announced, as part of partial withdrawal of stimulus, in Budget 2010-11. The auto sector had been a significant beneficiary of the stimulus packages rolled out by the Government in the second half of 2008-09 in the wake of global financial meltdown.
In Budget 2010-11, the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, had announced a hike in the general Cenvat rate for non-petroleum goods to 10 per cent from 8 per cent. Mr Mukherjee had also announced a hike in the ad-valorem component of excise duty on large cars, multi-utility vehicles and sports utility vehicles.
