Bigger tax sops for big corporates – CAG

Bigger corporate you are, the lesser tax you pay as more exemptions are available to you, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found. As against the statutory 33.9%, 179 top companies with profit before tax (PBT) of Rs 500 crore and above paid an effective tax rate of 22.1% in 2008-09.

On the other hand, the effective rate for the companies upto PBT of only Rs one crore was more at 25.5%.

“This shows that tax concessions are being availed of mainly by large companies,” the CAG said in its latest report.

The tax exemptions themselves have increased by 150% to Rs 1.20 lakh crore from Rs 48,168 crore in 2005-06, it said.

The CAG observations were also echoed by the Left parties, which have been stating that the government revenue mobilisation is focussed on the low and middle income people while the corporates walk away with the tax exemptions.

Opposing the government policies as reflected in the Budget for 2011-12, CPI-M leader Brinda Karat had said in Parliament on March 10, “Budget favours the rich, the corporates and their interests as opposed to the interests of the mass of people”.