Transfer pricing issue: preference share investment was treated...

Transfer pricing issue: preference share investment was treated as a disguised loan and recharacterised for TP purposes on substance-over-form grounds; DRP/TPO conclusion was affirmed and interest benchmarked accordingly. Disallowance under exempt-income allocation: the assessee's suo motu ad hoc apportionment of employee and overhead costs was rejected as unsupported. Interest disallowance against investments was denied where interest free funds exceeded investments; administrative disallowance to be recomputed per relevant precedent. An additional ground on cost attribution for captive steam was refused; AO correctly attributed full plant cost to electricity, eliminating the 80 IA deduction. Interest deduction for acquisition of control denied for lack of nexus; alternative claim against dividend income rejected. Matters on post retirement medical provision and in house R&D expenditure restored to AO for factual examination; AO directed to consider rectification for foreign tax credit.