Banking and energy sector companies are the highest advance tax paying corporates in the country, owing to a surge in business and personal lending coupled with rising energy consumption, according to finance ministry sources.

Among the top 25 corporate taxpayers, the public sector companies in the energy sector -- Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, National Thermal Power [Get Quote] Corporation, Gzas Authority of India Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd [Get Quote] -- have deposited Rs 7,382 crore (Rs 73.82 billion) advanced taxes by December as against Rs 6,248 crore (Rs 62.48 billion) during the corresponding period last fiscal.

By paying Rs 5,192 crore (Rs 51.92 billion) as advance tax by December, as against Rs 4,818 crore (Rs 48.18 billion), ONGC [Get Quote] emerged the highest corporate taxpayer followed by steel major SAIL [Get Quote] (Rs 2,351 crore or Rs 23.51 billion).

"Out of the 25 top corporate tax paying companies, ten are from the banking and insurance sector, which include public sector major State Bank of India [Get Quote], Life Insurance Corporation of India, Punjab National Bank [Get Quote], Bank of Baroda [Get Quote], besides private sector banks like ICICI Bank [Get Quote], Standard Chartered, HSBC, HDFC Bank [Get Quote] and Citibank," said a senior finance ministry official.

For instance, he said, SBI advance tax deposits almost doubled this year to Rs 2,084 crore (Rs 20.84 billion) by December 2006 this fiscal as against Rs 1,092 crore (Rs 10.92 billion) during the corresponding period last year.

Reliance Industries [Get Quote], which has interests in different fields, deposited Rs 1,102 crore (Rs 11.02 billion) as against Rs 628 crore (Rs 6.28 billion) during the same period.

However, the banking and insurance sectors seem to have witnessed the highest growth, benefiting from the booming economy.

Notably, by December 15, the government usually collects about 75 per cent of direct taxes as advanced tax. The official said if the trends continues, the revenue target of Rs 210,000 crore (Rs 2,100 billion) for the current fiscal could easily exceed.

By December this year, the advance tax payments of foreign bank Standard Chartered increased by around 75 per cent to Rs 580 crore (Rs 5.80 billion) as against Rs 330 crore (Rs 3.30 billion) during the corresponding period last fiscal.

Public sector telecom major BSNL's contribution to corporate tax stood at Rs 1,050 crore (Rs 10.50 billion) as against Rs 529.9 crore (Rs 5.299 billion) last year.

While Gujarat Ambuja Cements [Get Quote] recorded the highest growth in terms of advance tax payment with a jump of 518 per cent, GAIL registered a negative growth of 14.07 per cent.

The cement major paid a tax of Rs 340 crore (Rs 3.40 billion) as compared to Rs 55 crore (Rs 550 million) last year, GAIL paid Rs 83 crore (Rs 830 million) less this year at Rs 507 crore (Rs 5.07 billion).

In automobile space, car leader Maruti Udyog Ltd [Get Quote] emerged as the leader with payment of Rs 439 crore (Rs 4.39 billion), followed by Bajaj Auto [Get Quote] at 417 crore (Rs 4.17 billion).

So far, the advance tax collection have fetched the government Rs 72,906 crore (Rs 729.06 billion) as against Rs 53,579 crore (Rs 535.79 billion) last year recording a jump of 36.07 per cent.

India Inc deposited Rs 59,393 crore (Rs 593.93 billion) advanced tax by Dec 2006 as compared to Rs 42,881 crore (Rs 428.81 billion) during corresponding year a year ago, an increase of 38.5 per cent.

At the same time income tax collection increased by 26.3 per cent to Rs 13,513 crore (Rs 135.13 billion) from Rs 10,698 crore (Rs 106.98 billion) previous year.