SBI pips ONGC as top tax-payer

Betters Oil Major's Rs 890-Cr Advance Tax With Contribution Of Rs 1,068Cr

New Delhi: When the world was reeling under a severe financial crunch, India went out to prove another point. Its banking business was not only profitable but had outperformed all other sectors.
The icing on the cake was the first quarter advance (direct) tax results when for the first time in the history of corporate India, a bank became the highest tax-payer, leaving behind numero uno Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC).
According to the advance tax data for the April-June (Q1) 2009, the country's largest bank, State Bank of India, while expecting a handsome growth in profit in Q1, deposited Rs 1,068 crore in the tax kitty against Rs 890 crore deposited by the oil behemoth for the same period.
SBI had paid Rs 663 crore tween 45% and 90%, private sector banks too have posted hefty growth, though not in the PSBs' degree.
The top 11 financial institutions that figure in the list of 25 highest tax-payers in Q1 are: SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, PNB, Bank of India, HSBC, Bank of Baroda, Citibank, HDFC and Nabard.
The highest growth of 89% was posted by Bank of India, which has paid Rs 231 crore tax, followed by Bank of Baroda that has paid Rs 210 crore with a growth of 50% and PNB (Rs 236 crore) marking an increase of 48% as compared to last year. Among private and foreign banks, ICICI Bank has paid the highest tax of Rs 350 crore in Q1, followed by HDFC Bank (Rs 250 crore), HSBC (Rs 225 crore) and Citibank (Rs 180 crore).

Among other industries, advance tax last year when the economy was growing at 9%. During the same period, ONGC's profit came down 33% from Rs 1,333 crore in Q1 last year to Rs 890 crore this time.
While all the results of advance tax payments for Q1 are yet to be compiled by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), available data reveal that among the top 25 companies, 11 are from the banking and financial sector and each paid Rs 100-1,000 crore for the April-June 2009 period. While profit margins of government banks range be-Reliance and Tata seem to be among major losers. The total Q1 tax payment of the diversified RIL was Rs 314 crore as against Rs 340 crore during the same period last year. Tata Steel paid Rs 230 crore against Rs 356 crore last year. SAIL's margins too have plunged as it paid Rs 345 crore tax against Rs 457 crore last year.

The net direct tax collections in the first two months of the current fiscal, the data for which was released by CBDT earlier, had revealed that the economy was expanding at a brisk pace after nearly six months of slowdown.
The net tax collection in April-May of 2009-10 stood at Rs 24,158 crore, up from Rs 22,840 crore collected during the boom period of 2008. The growth in May was sharper with tax collection registering a 17% rise compared to the same period last year.

ONGC scores a hat-trick of oil & gas discoveries

PERFECT DRILL: KG FIND MAY BE AS BIG AS RELIANCE'S

The country's largest oil explorer may well have struck gold with one find, its biggest in many years, and the other two almost just as 'significant'

INDIA'S biggest oil explorer ONGC has struck oil and gas in three new blocks, one of these finds its most significant in decades and holding the promise of significantly narrowing the energy-starved country's demandsupply gap in the natural gas sector.

The gas find at Krishna Godavari (KG) basin off the Andhra coast could prove as rich as the Reliance Industries' D-6 block, which, at its peak, is expected to double India's current natural gas output. The other two discoveries included an oil find in Charada-3 offshore block in Cambay basin and oil and gas find in Matar in Vadodara district, both in Gujarat.

ONGC chairman and managing director RS Sharma confirmed the three discoveries, but declined to elaborate on the size of these finds. But a senior official in the company, who requested anonymity, said the KG basin find could have an estimated reserve of 10 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas.

Even the Charada-3 oil find was "significant", the official said, calling it "a large accumulation spread in about 8 km of area." The success in Matar was notable as the block was earlier awarded to a combine of Niko Resources and GSPC, which didn't have much success in finding hydrocarbons, the ONGC official said.
"We have notified the finds to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbon (DGH). If the approvals come in, it would take about three to four years for production from these fields to begin," Mr Sharma told ET NOW in an exclusive interview.

The head of DGH, VK Sibal, said his organisation was still to ratify ONGC's finds. "We are going through the case and will take a call soon," he said.
India currently imports almost 80% of its energy needs, and analysts say that many more new finds may be needed to satiate the burgeoning appetite for energy in the rapidly growing economy.
ONGC, one of India's earliest and pre-eminent oil firms, had its last major discoveries in the 1980s when it discovered oil and gas off the Mumbai coast.

SPOT ON
Block IE (KG Basin)
Estimated gas reserves of 10 TCF Pre-Nelp block, 6 kms off Yanam coast High-pressure gas in large volumes
Charada-3 (Cambay Basin)
Oil accumulation in 8 kms Pre-Nelp block in Mehsana district Heavy & viscous oil find
Matar (Vadodara District)
Pre-Nelp block Oil and gas found in two intervals Earlier attempt by Niko-GSPC failed Gas finds may pump up investor perception
MORE recently, that discovery has been eclipsed by the Reliance gas discovery in 2002, now estimated to have reserves of 11.5 TCF. Widely regarded as India's biggest gas discoveries to date, production from Reliance's D-6 field is set to double country's current gas production of about 89 MMSCMD at its peak.
Shares in state-run ONGC, India's second most valuable company by market value, closed 1.6% down at Rs 1,010 on the BSE on Monday, tracking a weak overall market.
The share price fall came on a day ET, quoting senior government officials, reported that ONGC was likely to be among firms that could in the future have to pay royalties on the basis of their sale price of oil and gas instead of the now prevalent well-head value.
For India's largest oil and natural gas explorer, the discoveries couldn't have come at a better time. ONGC, like most of its global peers, is constantly replacing its old and depleting reserves of oil and gas with new discoveries. "We made almost 23 discoveries last year and our reserve-toreplacement ratio is almost 1:4, as compared to global averages of 1:1," ONGC chairman Mr Sharma said.
All the three blocks on which ONGC, in which the government has a near 80% stake, has struck oil and gas were given to the company without competitive bidding. Analysts say ONGC's discoveries could positively impact investor perception of India's hydrocarbon reserves, especially since it comes two months ahead of the next round of bidding for oil and gas blocks under Nelp-VIII.