Make available test under India-Singapore DTAA excludes technical service receipts from FTS taxation without a permanent establishment.

Technical inspection and integrity assessment receipts were treated as business profits under the India-Singapore DTAA because the services, though technical, did not satisfy the "make available" requirement in Article 12(4)(b). As a result, they could not be taxed as fees for technical services under the treaty. The receipts therefore fell within Article 7, and in the absence of a permanent establishment in India, they were not taxable in India. The first appellate factual findings on the nature of the services were not controverted.

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Issues: Whether the receipts from technical inspection and integrity assessment services were taxable as fee for technical services or as business income under the India-Singapore Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, and whether the absence of a permanent establishment in India barred taxation in India.

Analysis: The receipts were found to arise from technical services, but the services did not satisfy the make available requirement under Article 12(4)(b) of the India-Singapore Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement. On that basis, the receipts could not be taxed under the treaty as fee for technical services. They were instead held to fall within Article 7 as business profits. Since the assessee had no permanent establishment in India, the business profits were not taxable in India. The revenue did not controvert the factual findings recorded by the first appellate authority.

Conclusion: The receipts were correctly treated as business income not taxable in India in the absence of a permanent establishment, and the assessee succeeded on the issue.

Ratio Decidendi: Where technical services do not make available technical knowledge, experience, skill, know-how or processes to the recipient, the receipts are not taxable as fee for technical services under the treaty and, in the absence of a permanent establishment in India, are taxable only as business profits in the residence state.

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