LIC has biggest tax demand of Rs 7,000 crore in the country

Life Insurance Corporation of India, the largest insurer of the country, has over Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion) in tax demand pending against it, the biggest across various categories.

The list of top ten pending tax demands in each category has been given by the Income Tax department to activist Subhash Agrawal in response to his RTI application seeking the list of top tax defaulters.

The tax demand raised by the department against LIC is of the assessment year 2010 which is pending "as on date", the response furnished on January 27, 2014 said.

In companies category, the top slot is given to LIC which also has biggest pending tax demand in all the other categories, according to the RTI reply.

The tax demand against LIC is Rs 7,027 crore (Rs 70.27 billion) which is followed by Rs 2,372 crore (Rs 23.72 billion) against Aditya Birla Telecom Limited, Rs 2,038 crore (Rs 20.38 billion) against Vodafone Infrastructure Limited, Rs 1517 crore (Rs 15.17 billion) against Idea cellular and Rs 1494 crore (Rs 14.94 billion) against Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.

Other companies with pending tax demand in the country include Nerka Chemicals Private Limited with Rs 1354 crore (Rs 13.54 billion), Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation with Rs 12.34 crore (Rs 12.34 billion), Andhra Pradesh Beverages Corporation Limited Rs 1228 crore (Rs 12.28 billion), HDFC Bank Limited with Rs 1051 crore (Rs 10.51 billilion) against and Indian Oil Corporation with Rs 874 crore (Rs 8.74 billion), according to the reply.

In the individuals category, one Sanjay Singal leads the tally with pending tax demand of Rs 280 crore (Rs 2.80 billion), followed by Sukesh Gupta with Rs 155 crore (Rs 1.55 billion) and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Madhu Kora with Rs 103 crore (Rs 1.03 billion).

"This

is to state that this office is only having a list of where in demand is pending as on date...Now how many or which of the demand comes or not comes under a particular section wherein the assessee is deemed to be in default, such linking is neither available nor possible to be collated by this office," Additional Director Income Tax Ashish Abrol said in the RTI response.

The 'Trust' category is led by Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority with pending tax demands of Rs 654 crore (Rs 6.54 billion) followed by Jamsetji Tata Trust Rs 290 crore (Rs 2.9 billion), Board of Control for Cricket in India with Rs 167 crore (Rs 1.67 billion), Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises Rs 162 crore (Rs 1.62 billion), NEIA Trust Rs 83 crore (Rs 830 million), Uttar Pradesh Forest Corporation with Rs 51 crore (Rs 510 million) and Divya Yog Mandir Trust with Rs 41 crore (Rs 410 million) among others.

Uttar Pradesh Avas evam Vikas Parishad with Rs 105 crore (Rs 1.05 billion) followed by Baroda Uttar Pradesh Gramin Bank with Rs 17 crore (Rs 170 million), Haryana State Pollution Control Board with Rs 15 crore (Rs 150 million) are among others with pending tax demands.

Other prominent persons with pending tax demands include Rajarambapu Patil Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana Ltd with Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million) in AOP category, Ambala Central Cooperative Bank in Rs 4 crore (Rs 40 million).