Royalty taxation of shipping receipts rejected where earlier years on identical facts had already favoured the assessee.

Receipts from shipping operations were held not taxable in India as royalty because the issue had already been decided in the assessee's favour in earlier assessment years on identical facts. The Tribunal followed those prior rulings, noting that the Revenue's appeals had been dismissed and that the same treaty position applied. On that consistent factual and legal basis, the addition treating the receipts as royalty could not be sustained.

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Issues: Whether the receipts from the assessee's shipping operations were taxable in India as royalty.

Analysis: The issue had already been decided in the assessee's favour in earlier assessment years on identical facts. The Tribunal followed those prior decisions, and the Revenue's appeals against them had been dismissed. On the same factual matrix, the receipts could not be treated as royalty, particularly when the earlier rulings had upheld the assessee's treatment of the income and the treaty position.

Conclusion: The receipts were not taxable as royalty in India and the addition could not be sustained.

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