Actor Akshay Kumar has emerged as Mumbai's top advance taxpayer for the sixth consecutive year, beating all the Khans of the industry. He deposited Rs 19 crore as the deadline for paying the final instalment of advance tax, for both corporates and individuals, expired on March 15.
Akshay, who is still basking in the success of 'Special 26', had four big hits in 2012 - 'Khiladi 786', 'Housefull2', 'Rowdy Rathore' and 'Oh My God'. In 2013, he will star in films like 'Naam Hai Boss', his home production, 'Once Upon a Time in Mumbai 2' and 'Ramanna'.
Close on the heels of Akshay Kumar was Salman Khan, who paid Rs 11 crore. Salman had two big releases in 2012, 'Ek Tha Tiger' and 'Dabangg 2', which made more than Rs 150 crore at the box office. He also signed a huge deal with a TV channel. Salman also upped his endorsements price. He is likely to have only one release this year, 'Mental', his home production.
Shah Rukh Khan paid Rs 10.5 crore while Aamir Khan returned with a seven-fold year-on-year increase by paying Rs 7.5 crore. Aamir stopped signing product deals from 2012 and is likely to continue that way even this year. He has one big release, 'Dhoom 3', in Christmas. Shahid Kapoor's tax payout remained unchanged at Rs 1 crore this year.
Among Bollywood's leading ladies, Katrina Kaif paid the highest tax of Rs 4.5 crore while Kareena Kapoor Khan is said to have paid Rs 4 crore. Katrina had two big hits in 2012 - 'Jab Tak Hai Jaan' and 'Ek Tha Tiger'. In 2013, she has only two movies for release - 'Dhoom 3' and Siddharth Anand's remake of the Hollywood hit 'Knight And Day'.
Kareena also had two releases last year - Puneet Malhotra's 'Gori Tere Pyaar Mein' and Prakash Jha's 'Satyagraha'. 'Badmash Babli' Priyanka Chopra was left far behind in the race and paid a meagre Rs 2 crore.
About 1.35 million returns were filed between February 10 and March 10, an increase of more than 15% over the 1.08 million returns filed in the year-ago period. For the current fiscal year, the revenue department has targeted a collection of Rs 5.65 lakh crore under the direct taxes category.
