The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) entered into 14 Unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (UAPA) and 2 Bilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (BAPA) during the month of March, 2018. The 2 bilateral APAs have been entered into with the United States of America. With the signing of these Agreements, the total number of APAs entered into by the CBDT has gone up to 219. This includes 199 Unilateral APAs and 20 Bilateral APAs. A total of 67 APAs (9 Bilateral and 58 Unilateral) have been signed in the F.Y.2017-18.

The 16 APAs entered into during March, 2018 pertain to various sectors of the economy like Telecommunication, Information Technology, Automobile, Pharmaceutical, Beverage, Trading, Manufacturing and Banking, Finance & Insurance. The international transactions covered in these agreements include payment of royalty fee, provision of business support services, provision of corporate guarantee, contract manufacturing, provision of marketing support services, provision of engineering design services, provision of engineering support services, merchanting trade of agro commodity, import/export of components, provision of IT services, provision of IT enabled services, provision of investment advisory services, availing of technical services, etc.

         The progress of the APA scheme strengthens the Government’s resolve of fostering a non-adversarial tax regime. The Indian APA programme has been appreciated nationally and internationally for being able to address complex transfer pricing issues in a fair and transparent manner.

Advance Pricing Agreements strengthen transfer pricing certainty by formalising agreed methodologies and reducing disputes. Signing of multiple Advance Pricing Agreements in March 2018 comprised Unilateral and Bilateral APAs covering international transactions such as royalty payments, business and marketing support services, corporate guarantees, contract manufacturing, engineering and IT services, merchanting trade, and import/export of components across sectors including telecommunications, IT, automobile, pharmaceutical, beverage, trading, manufacturing and financial services, formalising agreed transfer pricing methodologies and treaty-based arrangements to provide certainty and dispute-avoidance.