Hyderabad: Oil Marketing firms and the South Central Railway are the biggest commercial taxes defaulters in Telangana. These arrears, nearly Rs 20,000 crore, were accrued since 2002 and officials have failed to collect them over the years citing court cases and other legal disputes.

Telangana has constituted a special legal cell to deal with the commercial tax defaulters and recover arrears at the earliest since the amount is nearly 20 per cent of the state budget size. According to the data available with the Commercial Taxes department, out of the total Rs 20,000 crore arrears, the Secunderabad zone alone accounts for Rs 12,000 crore as institutions that owe huge arrears are located in this zone. South Central Railway owes nearly Rs 334 crore in taxes, Indian Oil Corporation owes Rs 275 crore, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Rs 157 crore and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Rs 36 crore. The other establishments that figure in the list are Paper Products Ltd (`12 crore), Godrej Consumer Products (Rs 16 crore), Voltas (Rs 6 crore) and Ballarpur Industries Ltd (Rs 1.5 crore).

“Several companies evaded taxes for trivial reasons while some approached courts and secured stay orders. The governments instead of pursuing the cases seriously in courts ignored them and indirectly helped companies to evade taxes. The Telangana government has taken this issue seriously and has stepped up efforts to recover the arrears,” said commercial taxes minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav,” said commercial taxes minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav.