2013 (1) TMI 672
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....ng arms' length price; 4. passing the order without demonstrating that appellant had motive of tax evasion; 5. ignoring the fact that the members of Dispute Resolution Panel also being jurisdictional Commissioner/Directors of Income Tax of the appellant, the constitution of the Dispute Resolution Panel is bad in law; 6. not appreciating that the charging or computation provision relating to income under the head "Profits & Gains of Business or Profession" do not refer to or include the amounts computed under Chapter X and therefore addition under Chapter X is bad in law; 7. adopting a flawed process of issuing notices u/s 133(6) and relying on the same without providing complete information and an opportunity to cross examine the companies concerned; 8. rejecting the comparables selected by the appellant and rejecting transfer pricing analysis of the appellant; 9. performing fresh transfer pricing analysis and adopting inappropriate filters in doing fresh transfer pricing analysis; 10. selecting inappropriate comparables; 11. rejecting additional comparables proposed by the appellant; ....
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....ed in the Annexure to the report in Form 3EB. The PLI of the assessee as arrived at in the said report is annexed as Annexure-II to this order. It can be seen from Annexure-I that the arithmetic mean of comparables was computed at 14.53%. The PLI of the assessee (as per Annexure-II) was computed at 9.98%. It was the claim of the assessee that exercising the option of determining the ALP between +/- 5% of the arithmetic mean of the comparable prices, the range of operating margin would be between 8.80% & 20.25% on operating costs. Since the assessee's operating margin on operating cost was within the arms' length range, the assessee claimed that its international transaction was at arms' length. 5. The filters or criteria adopted by the tax payer in its TP study and the remarks of the Transfer Pricing Officer ("TPO") to whom the AO referred determining of ALP on such approach were as follows:- "Filters or criteria adopted by the taxpayer in its TP study: Sl. No. Particulars Remark of the TPO 1 Companies for which sufficient financial data is not available to undertake analysis This is an appropriate filter. Hence, it is accepted. 2 Companies that ....
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....p; * Companies who have less than 25% of the operating revenues as export sales were excluded * Companies who have diminishing revenues/persistent losses for the period under consideration were excluded * Companies having different financial year ending (i.e. not March 31, 2006) or data of the company does not fall within 12 month period i.e. 01-04-2005 to 31-03-2006, were rejected * Companies whose employee cost to operating revenues is less than 25% of the revenues were excluded * Companies whose onsite revenue is more than 75% of the export revenues were excluded." 7. The TPO rejected 20 out of 28 comparables given by the assessee in its TP report (Annexure I to this order). The assessee before the TPO had also given some other additional comparables which was also rejected by the TPO. The TPO on his own, on a search carried on in Prowess Database arrived at a set of 18 comparables over and above the 8 comparables relied upon by the assessee in its TP study, which the TPO accepted were comparable. Thus, the TPO arrived at a set of 26 comparables. The set of 26 comparables is given as Ann....
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....the AO, the assessee filed objections before the DRP. The DRP rejected those objections and confirmed the transfer pricing adjustment suggested by the TPO. The adjustment confirmed by the DRP was added to the total income of the assessee by the AO in the fair order of assessment. Against the said order of the Assessing Officer, the assessee has preferred the present appeal before the Tribunal. 10. The ld. counsel for the assessee as well as the ld. DR made rival submissions on various aspects of the adjustment made by the TPO. These objections will be dealt with under different heads. (1) Turnover Filter 11. The ld. counsel for the assessee submitted that the TPO has applied a lower turnover filter of Rs. 1 crore, but has not chosen to apply any upper turnover limit. In this regard, it was submitted by him that under rule 10B(3) to the Income-tax Rules, it was necessary for comparing an uncontrolled transaction with an international transaction that there should not be any difference between the transactions compared or the enterprises entering into such transaction, which are likely to materially affect the price or cost charged or paid or profit arising from such transaction i....
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....ed in selection of companies like Infosys which is 277 times bigger than the Assessee (turnover of Rs. 13,149 crores as compared to Rs. 47.47 crores of Assessee). It was submitted that an appropriate turnover range should be applied in selecting comparable uncontrolled companies. 14. Reference was made to the decision of the ITAT Bangalore Bench in the case of Genisys Integrating Systems (India) (P.) Ltd. v. Dy. CIT [2012] 53 SOT 159, wherein relying on Dun and Bradstreet's analysis, the turnover of Rs. 1 crore to Rs. 200 crores was held to be proper. The following relevant observations were brought to our notice:- "9. Having heard both the parties and having considered the rival contentions and also the judicial precedents on the issue, we find that the TPO himself has rejected the companies which are (sic) making losses as comparables. This shows that there is a limit for the lower end for identifying the comparables. In such a situation, we are unable to understand as to why there should not be an upper limit also. What should be upper limit is another factor to be considered. We agree with the contention of the learned counsel for the assessee that the size matters in busines....
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.... means a transaction between two or more associated enterprises, either or both of whom are non-residents, in the nature of purchase, sale or lease of tangible or intangible property, or provision of services, or lending or borrowing money, or any other transaction having a bearing on the profits, income, losses or assets of such enterprises, and shall include a mutual agreement or arrangement between two or more associated enterprises for the allocation or apportionment of, or any contribution to, any cost or expense incurred or to be incurred in connection with a benefit, service or facility provided or to be provided to any one or more of such enterprises. Sec.92-A defines what is an Associated Enterprise. In the present case there is no dispute that the transaction between the Assessee and its AE was an international transaction attracting the provisions of Sec.92 of the Act. Sec.92C provides the manner of computation of Arm's length price in an international transaction and it provides:- (1) that the arm's length price in relation to an international transaction shall be determined by any of the following methods, being the most appropriate method, having regard to the nature....
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....b-section (2) of section 92C, the arm's length price in relation to an international transaction shall be determined by any of the following methods, being the most appropriate method, in the following manner, namely :- (a) to (d)** ** ** (e) transactional net margin method, by which,- (i) the net profit margin realised by the enterprise from an international transaction entered into with an associated enterprise is computed in relation to costs incurred or sales effected or assets employed or to be employed by the enterprise or having regard to any other relevant base; (ii) the net profit margin realised by the enterprise or by an unrelated enterprise from a comparable uncontrolled transaction or a number of such transactions is computed having regard to the same base; (iii) the net profit margin referred to in sub-clause (ii) arising in comparable uncontrolled transactions is adjusted to take into account the differences, if any, between the international transaction and the c....
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....uch financial year may also be considered if such data reveals facts which could have an influence on the determination of transfer prices in relation to the transactions being compared." 19. A reading of the provisions of Rule 10B(2) of the Rules shows that uncontrolled transaction has to be compared with international transaction having regard to the factors set out therein. Before us there is no dispute that the TNMM is the most appropriate method for determining the ALP of the international transaction. The disputes are with regard to the comparability of the comparable relied upon by the TPO. 20. In this regard we find that the provisions of law pointed out by the ld. counsel for the assessee as well as the decisions referred to by the ld. counsel for the assessee clearly lay down the principle that the turnover filter is an important criteria in choosing the comparables. The assessee's turnover is Rs. 47,46,66,638. It would therefore fall within the category of companies in the range of turnover between 1 crore and 200 crores (as laid down in the case of Genisys Integrating Systems (India) (P.) Ltd. (supra). Thus, companies having turnover of more than 200 crores have to be....
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....lysis, it was submitted that the information obtain u/s. 133(6) in so far as it is contrary to the information available in the public domain should be rejected. 22. The ld. DR however submitted that the power u/s. 133(6) of the Act is absolute and cannot be questioned by the assessee, unless the assessee is able to establish that the same is incorrect. 23. We will deal with this aspect after considering the other submissions made by the assessee on the transfer pricing adjustments, if necessary and required. If on other parameters on which the ALP has to be determined, it is found that the price charged by the Assessee is at Arm's Length, we need not decide this aspect in this case. (3) Improper selection of comparables (a) Megasoft Ltd. : 24. This company was chosen as a comparable by the TPO. The objection of the assessee is that there are two segments in this company viz., (i) software development segment, and (ii) software product segment. The Assessee is a pure software services provider and not a software product developer. According to the Assessee there is no break up of revenue between software products and software services business on a standalone basis of this com....
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....ty (submissions on page 381 to 383 of the PB-I). It was further submitted that Megasoft Limited has provided segmental break-up between the software services segment and software product segment (page 68 of PB-II), which was also adopted by the TPO in his show cause notice (Page 84 of PB-I). The segmental results i.e., results pertaining to software services segment of this company was: Segmental Operating Revenues Rs. 63,71,32,544 Segmental Operating Expenses Rs. 51,75,13,211 Operating Profit Rs. 11,96,19,333 OP/TC (PLI) 23.11% 26. It was reiterated that in the given circumstances only PLI of software service segment viz., 23.11% ought to have been selected for comparison. 27. It was further submitted that the learned TPO in case of other comparable, similarly placed, had adopted the margins of only the software service segment for comparability purposes. Consistent with such stand, it was submitted that the margins of the software segment only should be adopted in the case of Megasoft also, in contrast to the entity level margins. 28. The margins at entity level and segment level of other comparables considered by the TPO in his first show cause notice were as follows....
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.... with cases where the results were abnormal. The special Bench observed as follows: "Even if the taxpayer or its counsel had taken Datamatics as comparable in its T.P. audit, the taxpayer is entitled to point out to the Tribunal that above enterprise has wrongly been taken as comparable. In fact there are vast differences between tested party and the Datamatics. The case of Datamatics is like that of "Imercius Technologies" representing extreme positions. If Imercius Technologies has suffered heavy losses and, therefore, it is not treated as comparable by the tax authorities, they also have to consider that the Datamatics has earned extraordinary profit and has a huge turnover, besides differences in assets and other characteristics referred to by Shri Aggarwal." The above observations of the special Bench is a pointer to the fact that where there are extraordinary profits and those companies are considered by the TPO for comparability but loss making companies are not considered as comparable, that would improper. The Tribunal found that such contradiction in approach should not be permitted. Similarly in the case of SAP Labs India (P.) Ltd. v. Asstt. CIT [2011] 44 SOT 156 had o....
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....overnment orders in force, costs of labour and capital in the markets, overall economic development and level of competition and whether the markets are wholesale or retail. 35. There is therefore no bar to considering companies with either abnormal profits or abnormal losses as comparable to the tested party, as long as they are functionally comparable. The OECD guidelines and in US TP regulations, this question may not arise at all because those regulations advocate the quartile method for determining ALP. Indian regulations specifically deviate from OECD guidelines and provide Arithmetic Mean method for determining ALP. In the quartile method, companies that fall in the extreme quartiles get excluded and only those that fall in the middle quartiles are reckoned for comparability. Hence, cases of either abnormal profits or losses (which are referred to as outliners) get automatically excluded. In the arithmetic mean method, all companies that are in the sample are considered, without exception and the average of all the companies are considered as the ALP. Hence, a general rule that companies with abnormal profits should be excluded may be in tune with the principles enunciated ....
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.... used for customization was less than 25% of the overall revenues. The TPO therefore held that less than 25% of the revenues of the comparable are from software products and therefore the comparable satisfied TPO's filter of more than 75% of revenues from software development services. Having drawn the above conclusion, the TPO did not bother to quantify the revenues which can be attributed to software product development and software development service but adopted the margin of this company at the entity level. In terms of Rule 10B(3)(b) of the Rules, an uncontrolled transaction shall be comparable to an international transaction if- (i) none of the differences, if any, between the transactions being compared, or between the enterprises entering into such transactions are likely to materially affect the price or cost charged or paid in, or the profit arising from, such transactions in the open market; or (ii) reasonably accurate adjustments can be made to eliminate the material effects of such differences. 38. Neither the TPO nor the DRP have noticed that there is bound to be a difference between the Assessee and Megasoft and the profit arising to the Megasoft as a....
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.... company at 52.59% which represents abnormal circumstances and profits. The following figures were placed before us:- Particulars FYs 05-06 06-07 07-08 08-09 Operating Revenue 21761611 35477523 29342809 28039851 Operating Expns. 16417661 23249646 23359186 31108949 Operating Profit 5343950 12227877 5983623 (3069098) Operating Margin 32.55% 52.59% 25.62% - 9.87% 40. It was submitted that this company has made unusually high profit during the financial year 06-07. The operating revenues increased 63.03% which indicates that it was an extraordinary year for this company. Even the growth of software industry for the previous year as per NASSCOM was 32%. The growth rate of this company was double the industry average. In view of the above, it was argued that this company ought to have been rejected as a comparable. 41. We have given a careful consideration to the submissions made on behalf of the Assessee and are of the view that the same deserves to be accepted. The reasons given by the Assessee for excluding this company as comparable are found to be acceptable. The decision of ITAT (Mumbai) in the case of Telcordia Technologies India (P.) Ltd. (supra) also s....
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....under wet lab procedures are under progress with our collaborative Institute, Department of Microbiology, Osmania University, Hyderabad. In the industrial biotechnology area, the company has signed the Technology transfer agreement with IMTECH CHANDIGARH (a very reputed CSIR organization) to manufacture and market initially two Enzymes, Alpha Amylase and Alkaline Protease in India and overseas. The company is planning to set up a biotechnology facility to manufacture industrial enzymes. This facility would also include the research laboratories for carrying out further R & D activities to develop new candidates' drug molecules and license them to Interested Pharma and Bio Companies across the GLOBE. The proposed Facility will be set up in Genome Valley at Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh.' According to the learned D.R. celestial labs is also in the field of research in pharmaceutical products and should be considered as comparable. As rightly submitted by the learned counsel for the Assessee, the discovery is in relation to a software discovery of new drugs. Moreover the company also is owner of the IPR. There is however a reference to development of a molecule to treat cancer using bi....
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.... also called for description of software development process. In response to the request of the TPO this company in its reply dated 29.3.2010 has given details of employees working in software development but it is not clear as to whether any segmental data was given or not. Besides the above there is no other detail in the TPO's order as to the nature of software development services performed by the Assessee. Celestial labs had come out with a public issue of shares and in that connection issued Draft Red Herring Prospectus (DRHP) in which the business of this company was explained as to clinical research. The TPO wanted to know as to whether the primary business of this company is software development services as indicated in the annual report for FY 06-07 or clinical research and manufacture of bio products and other products as stated in the DRHP. There is no reference to any reply by Celestial labs to the above clarification of the TPO. The TPO without any basis has however concluded that the business mentioned in the DRHP are the services or businesses that would be started by utilizing the funds garnered though the Initial Public Offer (IPO) and thus in no way connected wit....
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....ld be rejected as a comparable. 47. We have given a careful consideration to the submission made on behalf of the Assessee. We find that the TPO has drawn conclusions on the basis of information obtained by issue of notice u/s.133(6) of the Act. This information which was not available in public domain could not have been used by the TPO, when the same is contrary to the annual report of this company as highlighted by the Assessee in its letter dated 21.6.2010 to the TPO. We also find that in the decision referred to by the learned counsel for the Assessee, the Mumbai Bench of ITAT has held that this company was developing software products and not purely or mainly software development service provider. We therefore accept the plea of the Assessee that this company is not comparable. (e) Accel Transmatic Ltd. 48. With regard to this company, the complaint of the assessee is that this company is not a pure software development service company. It is further submitted that in a Mumbai Tribunal Decision of Capgemini India (P.) Ltd v. Addl. CIT [2011] 46 SOT 195 the DRP accepted the contention of the assessee that Accel Transmatic should be rejected as comparable. The relevant obser....
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....mparables 51. It is the grievance of the Assessee that the lower authorities have rejected certain comparables selected and proposed by the assessee on the ground that they have predominant onsite revenues and are functionally different. The justification for retaining the comparables selected by the assessee are available on pages 318 to 331 and pages 394 to 402 of PB-I. The comparables that have been rejected by the TPO, but do not deserve to be so rejected, according to the Assessee are: Sl. No Name of the Company Operating Revenues Operating Margin on Cost 1 Indium Software (India) Limited 6,49,14,480 2.03% 2 E2E Infotech Limited 21,548,500 10.81% 3 Goldstone Technologies Limited 410,348,370 22.94% 4 Thinksoft Global Services Limited 526,597,803 19.12% 5 Visu International Limited 900,319,768 19.90% 6 Maars Software International Limited 355,488,750 -1.68% 7 Akshay Software Technologies Limited 71,283,298 3.98% 8 VJIL Consulting Limited 130,249,104 -14.92% 9 Synfosys Business Solutions Limited 62,238,020 12.17% 52. As far as the rejection of the comparables cited by the assessee in its TP study is concerned, we find the following. In so....
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.... the pricing structure of all the comparable for various projects. The pricing would differ from project to project, domain to domain and on various other parameters. Such exercise has not been done. Further as admitted by the TPO, once functional similarity is accepted, companies can be compared. The attempt to separate onsite activity for comparison purposes is thus without basis. 55. On the reasoning of the TPO that the assets are negligible in the onsite companies, it is the stand of the Assessee that while discussing turnover filter, the learned TPO has stated that software companies do not require much infrastructure. The TPO in case of other assessees has held that software companies whether onsite or offshore do not require much infrastructure. Therefore question of assets being negligible only for onsite operation should not matter because as per the TPO not much assets are required for software companies. 56. On the reasoning of the TPO that Margins are lower in case of onsite operations, it is the stand of the Assessee that margin is not a criteria to select or reject a comparable under Rule I0B(2) of the I.T. Rules. The assessee submits that comparability of an uncont....
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....arned TPO is without any basis. 59. The learned TPO has further stated that companies whose revenues are generated mainly from onsite work mimic a company which is a resident in that country. This again is a conclusion without basis. It is again a conclusion whose relevance to the case on hand has not been established. The same is therefore to be ignored. Further, the TP Regulations or OECD Guidelines do not prescribe application of onsite filter. Therefore, onsite revenue filter should not be used. Accordingly the assessee submits that onsite revenue filter should not be adopted in judging whether a company is to be retained as a comparable or not. 60. We have given a careful consideration to the above submissions made on behalf of the Assessee. We find that the DRP has not dealt with any of the above submissions but have in page 23 and 24 of their order have held that the application of onsite revenue filter was justified. Rule 10B(2) & (3) of the IT Rules, 1962 would be relevant to render a decision on the above contentions of the parties before us. Those rules have already been set out in the earlier part of this order. The crux of the rules, in so far as it relates to the co....
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.... conditions" are different for on-site and offshore work, but he has not substantiated how market conditions differ. We fail to see any substance in such objection. The fact is that in onsite development of computer software, the Assessee does not employ assets nor does the Assessee assume many risks which the offshore software developer assumes. Even the Assessee accepts that the per hour rate will be different in the case of offshore software development and onsite software development. 64. The next objection of the Assessee is that when the most appropriate method selected for determining ALP is the TNMM there is no reason as to why one should look at price difference in offshore software development and onsite software development. It is no doubt true that in TNMM it is only the margins in an uncontrolled transaction that is tested with reference to the controlled transaction but it is not possible to ignore the fact that pricing will have an effect on the margins obtained in a transaction. The argument that if pricing structure were to be considered as criteria, then it will have to be seen as to what is the pricing structure of all the comparable for various projects cannot ....
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....eady stated the Assessee has limited its analysis only to functions but not to the assets, risks as well as prevailing market conditions in which both the buyer and seller of services located. Hence, the companies in which more than 75% of their export revenues come from onsite operations are to be excluded from the comparability study as they are not functioning in similar economic circumstances to that of the tax payer. Hence, it is held that this filter is appropriately applied by the TPO. 68. Admittedly the onsite revenue in the case of the following comparable companies identified by the Assessee was more than 75% of its export revenues viz., (a) Visu International Ltd. (b) Maars Software International Ltd. (c) Akshay Software Technologies Ltd. (d) VJIL Consulting Ltd. (e) Synfosys Business Solutions Ltd. The above companies were therefore rightly not considered as comparable by the TPO. We hold accordingly. 69. Another reason given by the TPO for rejecting E2E Infotech Ltd., a comparable identified by the Assessee but rejected by the TPO, was for the reason that the details of this company was insufficient. On the above, the assessee has ....
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....y's annual report, flow of revenue in this company is from software development both, onsite and offshore operations. On the above, we find that this company has clarified in response to notice of the AO u/s.133(6) of the Act that it is not in the business of software development but in ITES. The alternative plea of the Assessee is that it should be allowed opportunity to cross examine this company on its reply to the notice of TPO u/s.133(6) of the Act. We have seen the objections of the Assessee which is based only on a reading of the Annual report and the claim of the Assessee is not on sound basis and is purely on surmises. We are of the view that the rejection by the TPO of this company as a comparable is on sound basis and the same is upheld. 73. Regarding Thinksoft Global Solutions Ltd., it was submitted that this company was rejected as comparable by the TPO for the reason that it was engaged in the software testing services. As already stated, this ground of rejection of comparable by the TPO has already been held by us to be proper. 74. Thus the claim of the Assessee to include 9 companies as comparable is found to be not acceptable. 75. The use of information received....
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....453,893,898 15.75% 16.36% 7. Lucid Software Ltd. 16,992,078 19.37% 18.24% 8. Mediasoft Solutions Pvt. Ltd. 18,508,785 3.66% 2.77% 9. Megasoft Ltd (Seg.) 637,132,545 23.11% 17.85% 10. Quintegra Solutions Ltd. 627,216,924 12.56% 10.42% 11. R S Software (India) Ltd. 1,010,449,441 13.47% 14.33% 12. R Systems International Ltd. (Seg) 1,120,172,651 15.07% 14.44% 13. SIP Technologies & Exports Ltd. 37,980,955 13.90% 11.90% 14. Thirdware Solutions Ltd. (Seg) 360,850,000 25.12% 22.71% Arithmetic Mean 17.508% 77. The differential between the margins of the assessee as above and of the comparable in the Table given above, is beyond the 5% range. Applying, the proviso to section 92C(2), adjustment is required to be made to the reported values of the assessee's transactions with its associated enterprises. The AO is directed to make adjustment to the ALP adopting the arithmetic mean of 17.508% and consequent addition to the total income. 78. The other issues raised by the Assessee viz., (i) the reference to TPO being bad in law; (ii) the CIT's approval for reference to TPO also being bad in law; (iii) the additions being unsu....
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....for enterprise level and transactional level differences between the Assessee and comparable companies. (D) Adjustment for differential in risk to be given. As far as point (C) and (D) are concerned, the arguments advanced are general with no supporting facts, hence rejected. The submissions of the Assessee in this regard are at pages 413 to 422 of the paper book. 80. Thus Gr.No.1 to 16 is decided as indicated above and the AO is directed to work out the adjustment to ALP keeping in mind the directions as given above. 81. Grounds 17.1 to 17.4 raised by the assessee reads as follows:- "The learned Assessing Officer and Hon'ble Dispute Resolution Panel have erred in:- 17. Excluding a sum of Rs. 1,78,58,079/- being expenses incurred in foreign currency from export turnover on the ground that these expenses are incurred in rendering technical services rendered to clients outside India while computing deduction under section 10A; 17.2 Not appreciating that the appellant, at all times during the relevant previous year, was engaged in development of computer software and not in rendering of technical services; 17.3 Excluding a sum of Rs.24,29,913/- being telecommunication an....
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....er, the learned AO has disallowed a sum of Rs. 1,76,98,160/- being research and development expenses under section 37 of the Act stating that the said expenditure is not revenue in nature. The Assessee pleaded before DRP that the expenditure should be allowed as deduction u/s37 of the Act or alternatively, if considered as capital expenditure, deduction should be allowed u/s.35 of the Act as expenditure incurred on Scientific Research. The DRP however proceeded under an erroneous assumption that these expenses were incurred on behalf of the AE. The DRP thereafter held that the Assessee has not explained as to how these expenses were deductible. 85. Before us, the assessee submitted that these expenses were incurred by it in developing two websites by name www.billbuddy.com and www.carbuy.com. In case of www.billbuddy.com, a customer could upload his telephone bill and the website would analyze the call charges and give output. In case of www.carbuy.com, the website would give comparison of various cars etc, to make informed decision to buyers. The assessee during the year incurred expenses like salaries and related benefits paid to employees, outsourcing charges, rent, electricity....
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....ot to tax the same sum in AY 09-10 as the sum has already suffered tax by disallowance in the present AY. With the above directions, Gr.No.19 is dismissed. 89. As far as Gr.No.20 is concerned, the facts are that the AO disallowed a sum of Rs. 28,25,890/- being travel expenses on the ground that the appellant did not furnish the name of employees who have travelled with details of the places including the invoices, bills and the amount thereof. In this regard, it was submitted that its employees go for foreign travel for onsite jobs. The assessee gives travel advance to the employees before their foreign travel. If the employees return before 31st March, their accounts are settled. However some time, the employees return after 31st March. In such cases, the appellant makes a provision in the books of account from the date of travel to 31st March based on its per diem policy. The same is settled in the succeeding year after return of the employees. The provision being towards actual expenditure incurred is allowable as deduction. The portion of provision is towards hotel and boarding charges. A provision is made towards hotel and boarding charges from the date of booking to 31st Mar....