Streamlining the process of No Objection Certificate (NOC), Port Clearance Certificate (PCC), voyage return and voyage assessment in the case of Foreign Shipping Companies (FSCs)

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....ced by foreign shipping companies in issuance of Port Clearance Certificate (PCC) required as per provisions of Section 172 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (the Act). Board had earlier issued Circular No 732 dated 20.12.1995 to do away with procedure of obtaining NOC for each voyage in cases covered by full DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) relief. However, it has been represented that (a) FSCs (Foreign Shipping Companies) having treaty benefits are still required to approach Port Assessing Officer (at all ports of call) for issuance of No Objection Certificate (NOC) for every vessel at the port for onward submission to Customs department at the port (b) no uniform practice is being followed by the Port Assessing officers in giving....

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....ions of the Act and in such a case the tax paid before each voyage shall be treated as payment of advance tax for that assessment year. 3. There are instances where the foreign shipping company is covered by a DTAA of India with other country wherein the taxing right on the shipping income of the foreign shipping company is wholly with the other country. In such cases, the foreign shipping company is not required to make any payment of taxes in respect of, either the voyage returns filed under section 172(3) of the annual return filed under section 139 read with section 172(7) of the Act. On representation to the Board to do away with procedure of obtaining NOC for each voyage in cases covered by DTAA, Circular No 732 dated 20.12.1995 had ....

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....has been examined by the Board and following guidelines are issued for streamlining the process. 6. Circular No 732 dated 20.12.1995 provides for issue of annual NOC by AO after carefully verifying the applicability of DTAA. Annual NOC is to be issued in cases where no tax is leviable on foreign shipping company due to the DTAA. The AO before whom the request for annual NOC is filed by the foreign shipping company should accordingly examine the applicability of DTAA to the foreign shipping company before issue of annual NOC. The annual NOC should clearly mention the names of the ships owned by the foreign shipping company, names of the ships chartered or names of shipping companies from which ships are chartered by the foreign shipping com....

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....concerned Customs authority. The CA certificate will be accompanied with annual NOC for all the foreign shipping companies to which the cargo in the ship belongs. (iii) In any other case, the Master of the ship would be required to obtain a voyage NOC from the Officer having jurisdiction over the port. The Customs Authorities shall issue the PCC only upon production of such NOC or an authenticated copy. 8. Filling of voyage return For a voyage where cargo belongs to a number of foreign shipping companies, even it all of them belong to treaty countries with full DTAA relief, there shall be different AOs for each such foreign shipping company. Since the voyage return is in respect of the ship and its cargo etc, it will not be possible to f....