NEW DELHI, Sept 19 (Reuters) - India is expecting 25 percent growth in advance tax collections at about 362.5 billion rupees in the September quarter, an official at the Central Board of Direct Taxes told Reuters on Friday.

By September 15, companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Corp. <ONGC.BO>, State Bank of India <SBI.BO>, Steel Authority of India Ltd <SAIL.BO> and Tata Steel <TISC.BO> paid more than 10 billion rupees in taxes for the second quarter, the official said.

Other firms who figured among the top 10 taxpayers included Life Insurance Corp, NMDC <NMDC.BO>, Reliance Industries <RELI.BO>, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd <BHEL.BO> and GAIL <GAIL.BO>.

"We are expecting at least 25 percent growth in advance tax collection in the second quarter," the CBDT official said.

Last year, the government collected about 290 billion rupees in advance taxes in the September quarter, he said.

The final figures for this year's second quarter advance tax receipts are yet to be collated by the Finance Ministry as it takes time for banks from smaller cities to send the data, the official added.

Advance tax receipts, which reflect corporate profit growth, were up 24.1 percent at 213.68 billion rupees in the June quarter, slower than that a year earlier, as oil companies suffered revenue losses and paid less tax.

Following are the approximate advance tax payments by top companies as furnished by finance ministry officials:

------------------------------------------------------------ Company Advance tax payment for September quarter

(in rupees billion)

2008/09 2007/08 ------------------------------------------------------------ ONGC 24.12 24.01 SBI 15.60 10.54 SAIL 10.61 9.00 Tata Steel 10.00 4.45 LIC 8.70 7.31 NMDC 8.00 4.50 Reliance Industries 6.49 6.83 BHEL 6.40 4.70 NTPC 6.04 5.26 GAIL 5.40 2.81 ------------------------------------------------------------ (Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Prem Udayabhanu) (([email protected]; +91-11-4178-1006; Reuters Messaging: [email protected]))

Keywords: INDIA TAX/ADVANCE