ITAT allowed the appeal of the assessee and directed the TPO to...

ITAT allowed the appeal of the assessee and directed the TPO to revise the benchmarking analysis. The Tribunal held that severance pay constitutes a non-operating, extraordinary item and must be excluded from operating costs when computing the assessee's margins for transfer pricing purposes. The Tribunal further directed exclusion of several identified comparables: Comparable A (functionally dissimilar and exhibiting extraordinary profit), Comparable B (functionally superior with advanced product offerings and extraordinary profits), Comparable C (diversified group activities and extraordinary profit), and Comparable D (product development focus previously rejected by the TPO), concluding none were functionally comparable to the assessee's captive software development services.