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2016 (9) TMI 907 - ITAT MUMBAIRoyalty payable to the Associated Enterprise - whether was to be restricted to 1 % of the qualifying Net Sales as against the rate of 50/0 of the qualifying et Sales as computed by the appellant - TPA - Held that:- From the record we found that the assessee did not bench mark the royalty payment separately. On enquiry by TPO, it has relied on RBI approval given in 1995 and also on the fact that the assessee earned a gross profit of 41.6%. TPO applied Press Note 9(2000 series) and restricted it to 1% on the plea that the payment was for use of trademark without transfer of technology. The assessee has not separately benchmarked the Royalty transaction at the time submission of Form 3CEB or at the time of preparation of Transfer Pricing Report. It is settled proposition of law that it is the onus of the assessee to prove that the transactions were taken at arm's length. Going by the relevant TP provisions as enshrined under the Act and relevant Rules, it is mandatory that the appellant has to independently benchmark its international transaction with independent comparables so as to arrive at arm's length price, which has not been made in this case. The comparability analysis is the substratum of determining the ALP, which has not been done by assessee at any stage. At the very same time we found that the revenue authorities have not properly appreciated the relevant clauses of the trademark licence agreement, precisely the clauses which were highlighted by ld. AR during the course of hearing before us. Therefore, in the interest of justice and fair play, this case should be restored back to the file of AO, ho shall require the assessee to bench mark its international transaction of 'royalty' with independent comparables following suitable methods prescribed under the Act and on its compliance, the AO after giving adequate opportunity to the assessee shall decide this issue in accordance with the TP regulations. - Decided in favour of assessee for statistical purposes.
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