TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2015 (12) TMI 1664
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.... action of the AO/TPO of including Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Private Limited, IDFC Investment Advisors Limited and ICRA online Ltd as comparable companies for determining the arm‟s length price of the international transactions of provison of investment advisory services and thereby making an adjustment of Rs. 69,78,474/- to the said international transction of provision of investment advisory services. 2. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, the DRP erred in confirming the action of the AO / TPO in not applying multiple year data for comparable companies and using data for the financial year 2009-2010 alone." 2. Briefly stated relevant facts of the case are that the assessee is engaged in the bu....
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.... to the addition of Rs. 69,78,474/-. 3. At the outset, Ld Counsel for the assessee filed a written note and summary of the arguments against the inclusion of the said three comparables ie ) Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Private Ltd; (ii) IDFC Investment Advisors Ltd and (iii) ICRA online Ltd. 4. In connection with the inclusion of Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Private Ltd as a good comparable, Ld counsel for the assessee submitted that the said company was considered a merchant banker and investment banker and the same is not functionally similar to that of one engaged in non-binding advisory services. These functions are intimately different and functionally dissimilar. In this regard, he relied on various decisions viz., (i)....
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....jump in business during the year 2007-08. On the whole, 23 assignments were completed successfully in the year as against 14 completed in the previous year. Income from cross border M&A a:tivity and the related financing solutions has been the largest contributor to the revenue mix during the year. The team size has now increased to 30 and there is a good blend of relationship managers, products specialist and sector expert. Specifically, the knowledge and expertise in the industry areas of real estate, oil & gas, information technology, steel and power have been strengthened. - .. The Capital Markets business gained momentum during the year deriving its synergy from distribution team at Motilal Oswal Securities Limited. The compan....
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....he income is earned by MOIAPL out of cross border activity services and related financial services. The capital market business is one of the source3s of the advisory fees earned by the assessee. Assessee has also earned fees out of assessee‟s capability of the structured finance teams, financial markets, ie both equity and credit market, is another source of income for the assessee. These functions of the assessee were analyzed by the Tribunal during the proceedings in the case of Carlyle India Advisors (P) Ltd (supra). The details of the findings of the Tribunal in this regard are mentioned in para 12 of the said Tribunal‟s order (supra) and the same is reproduced as under: "12. ..........The only dispute is whether M....
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....Length Price excluding Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors Pvt Ltd [ as per the findings] and including M/s. IDC [as per the directions of the DRP] i the light of the provisions of section 92C(2) r.w.s 92C(2A) of the Act. Ground no.4.1 and ground no.9 are accordingly allowed." 6. The contents of above extracted para highlights the fact that the MOIAPL is into merchant banking, and therefore, is functionally different to that of the assessee which is engaged in the business of non-binding advisory services. Therefore, in our opinion, the assessee is engaged in the function of non-binding advisory services whereas MOIAPL is into the merchant banking, capital markets, finance markets etc. Therefore, we find the MOIAPL is functionally dissimil....
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....s extracted as under:- "8. We have considered rival contentions and found that assessee is engaged in business of providing investment research and advisory services to Bain Mauritius, on a non-exclusive and non-binding basis, in connection with potential investment opportunities in India. IDFC rendered Portfolio Management services for hybrid infrastructure portfolio, agriculture opportunities portfolio and farm fork portfolio. IDFC is registered as portfolio manager with SEBI. Thus, IDFC is functionally different from the assessee which is engaged merely in non-binding investment advisory support services. Since, IDFC is functionally different, we direct the AO to exclude the IDFC from the list of comparables for computing arm‟s ....