New Delhi, March 4 (IANS): A leading telecom operator, an oil major, premier hospitals and a prominent real estate firm are among the entities under the tax department's scanner for combined TDS (tax deducted at source) and TCS (tax collected at source) defaults of nearly Rs 5,000 crore.

The tax department has said that the telecom company had not made the required TDS of 10 per cent under section 194J of the Income-tax Act, 1961 on technical contracts worth Rs 4,000 crore and the amount is further liable to go up once the enquiry is completed.

The TDS wing of the Income Tax Department has unearthed default of TDS amounting to Rs 324 crore in the case of telecom company which is a major operator in Delhi.

In case of the oil major, the TDS default is to the tune of Rs 3,200 crore. The defaults included short deduction of tax and non-deduction of tax.

"Short deduction of tax pertained to TDS u/s 194J for several years on payment of fee for technical services for installation and maintenance of high tech oil refineries, payments for chemical process of re-gasification and transportation of LNG," a tax department press release said.

During the survey by the tax department, several hospitals in the city were found to be flouting the TDS and TCS norms. They paid less tax to the Income Tax Department.

During the survey at two premier hospitals, one with more than 2,500 bed capacity and the other with 700 bed capacity, it was found that the former was not making any TDS on construction contracts as statutorily required u/s 194C/194J, while the latter was deducting tax at the rate of 10 per cent only on salary paid to the doctors instead of the present TDS rate of 30 per cent.

The two hospitals are alleged to have defaulted on TDS of Rs 70 crore and Rs 20 crore, respectively.

"Further enquiry revealed that the hospitals were also not making the required TDS at 10 per cent from the maintenance charges paid for the hi-tech sophisticated operation theatre and diagnostic equipments," the tax department said.

In another TDS survey conducted on a prominent real estate group in the national capital, it was seen that the deductor having already deducted tax in earlier years had not deposited the deducted taxes in government account.

"During the survey, verification and analysis indicated outstanding TDS liability and interest payable of Rs 214 crore," the tax department statement said.

The tax department has stepped up enforcement action against TDS default cases as this category of revenue contributes to over 45 per cent of the total direct tax collection in the country.

As per rules, the TDS has to be paid to the credit of the central government within seven days from the end of the month in which the deduction is made.