TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (2) TMI 1233
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....mal provisions of the Act. Validity of assessment proceedings/order: 2 That on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the impugned assessment completed vide order dated 22.06.2023 passed by the assessing officer under section 143(3) read with section 144C of the Act ('impugned order") is illegal, bad-in-law and liable to be quashed since the same is barred by limitation. 3. That on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the directions issued by the Ld. Dispute Resolution Panel ('DRP') is non-est and invalid in absence of Document Identification Number ('DIN"), though intimated subsequently. 3.1 That on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the final assessment order passed in conformity with invalid directions of DRP is, therefore, invalid and barred by limitation. Without prejudice- Merits 4. That on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, assessing officer erred in holding that the payment received by the appellant from sale of software to MG Motor India Private Limited ('MG India') is taxable as royalty in India in terms of Article 12(3) of the India-....
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....dly, it does not have a Permanent Establishment ("PE") in India. For AY 2020-21, the assessee e-filed its return of income on 09.02.2021 declaring income of Rs. 18,79,80,560/-. Subsequently, the assessee filed its revised return of income on 28.05.2021 declaring NIL income and claimed refund of Rs. 18,79,80,560/-. The case of the assessee was selected for complete scrutiny through CASS. Statutory notices were issued and served upon the assessee which were duly complied with. During the AY 2020-21, the assessee entered into License Agreement with MG Motor India Private Limited ("MG India") for granting of licence to incorporate the "Intelligent connected vehicle system" ("Software") into head unit (supplied by another company) which is supplied from outside India and get fitted into MG India's car. The assessee received Rs. 18,79,80,556/- from MG India for supply of Software during AY 2020-21 and claimed it as non-taxable under the provisions of India-China DTAA. 4.1 During the assessment proceedings a show cause notice dated 14.03.2022 was issued to the assessee asking to explain why the above receipts may not be treated as royalty income. The assessee filed its response on 17.0....
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....n the assessee and the end user (buyer of the car) and not with MG India. As a corollary, the Ld. AO has held the transfer/sale of licensed product i.e. Software to be not between the assessee and MG India but between the assessee and the end user i.e. buyer of the car. ii) MG India purchases information from the assessee which is coded in the form of maps and related utilities and used in the manufacturing process of car, constituting imparting of information in the nature of industrial, commercial or scientific experience constitutes royalty. iii) The decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Engineering Analysis (supra) is not applicable in the facts of the present case since the issue under consideration relates to imparting of information concerning technical, industrial, commercial or scientific knowledge, experience. 9.1 The Ld. AR submitted that the Ld. AO failed to appreciate that MG India merely purchases the licensed software which are embedded in the head unit and fitted into cars for end use by the buyer of the car. In such cases, EULA is signed with the end user/customer to restrict access to rights in the licence. MG India merely purchases the....
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....s vehicle (copy of the License Agreement at pages 6-25 of the Paper Book). As per the terms of the License Agreement such license has been granted by the assessee to MG India on non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-assignable basis. The Software interalia includes features such as online map and navigation; online weather; online intelligent voice and Bluetooth protocol. This Software is embedded in a hardware device known as head unit. The head units are car model centric i.e. they remain same for all cars of a particular model. The assessee has also filed a declaration before the Ld. AO which is on record (pages 27 of the Paper Book) certifying that "SOIMT supplies software to MG India. The software gets delivered to hardware supplier and it comes as a part of hardware. There are no services provided by SOIMT and only off the shelf software is provided." 11.1 It is the case of the Revenue that the payment received by the assessee from MGI is royalty income subject to tax in India in terms of Article 12(3) of the India-China DTAA. Article 12(3) of India-China DTAA is reproduced below for ready reference: "The term "royalties" as used in this Article means payment of an....
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.... the expiry of the Service period or to incorporate the system in Vehicles produced after the Service Period. e) Each End User who purchases a Vehicle shall be deemed to be granted an irrevocable license to use the Services it connection with the purchased Vehicle. d) This Agreement contains the full and complete grant of rights by Party B to Party A in respect of the Licensed Products and any other use of the Licensed Products other than those which are strictly prohibited in this Agreement. 3. Further obligations of Party A a) Party A shall at all times store the Licensed Products in a secure manner b) In no event shall Party A make any additions, modifications, adaptations, or other alterations that in any manner materially reduce, impair, or otherwise negatively impact upon the accuracy, completeness, integrity, or safety of the Licensed Products. c) Specifically, in respect of the Software. Party A shall not, except as explicitly permitted under this Agreement i) copy the whole or any part of the System: ii) modify, merge or combine the whole or any part of System with any other software or documentation: ....
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.... form of such software and have no right to receive the source code. If upgrades, updates or supplements to the SAIC OIMT Services are obtained or made available to you, the use of such upgrades, updates or supplements are subject to the foregoing unless other terms accompany such upgrades, updates or supplements in which case those terms apply. All other rights not specifically granted under this paragraph are reserved by SAIC OIMT." 11.4 From the perusal of the License Agreement, it can be inferred that the objective of the agreement is to provide the Software which is a standard/off the shelf software supplied by the assessee to MG India for which the impugned payments are made by MG India. This is also evidenced by a declaration/certificate filed by the assessee wherein it has been specifically certified that the assessee supplies off the shelf software which gets delivered to hardware supplier and comes as a part of hardware without there being any element of provision of services by the assessee to MG India. From the relevant clauses of the License Agreement extracted above, it can be seen that the assessee has granted a non-transferable, non-exclusive, non-assignable lice....
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....A. It is pertinent to note that the expression "imparting of information concerning industrial, commercial or scientific experience" has not been defined under the India-China DTAA or the Act. The meaning of the same has to be gathered and understood in the light of various judicial precedents and commentaries on this subject. The expression "imparting of information concerning industrial, commercial or scientific experience" alludes to the concept of "know-how" which is defined to mean "undivulged technical knowledge, information, experience or technique that is necessary for the industrial reproduction of a product or process". "...know-how represents what a manufacturer cannot know from mere examination of the product and mere knowledge of the progress of technique. The information concerning industrial, commercial or scientific experience should have a perpetual or extended use." From the factual and legal scenario and considering the relevant clauses of the License Agreement which specifically provides for supply of software license only, it can be gathered that the assessee has only supplied a standard/off the shelf software to MG India and the assessee has not given any "kno....
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....erest of Rs. 51,882/- under section 234A of the Act. The Ld. AR submitted that the assessee has filed its return of income within the prescribed due date. The due date for furnishing of return of income for the AY 2020-21 was extended to 15.02.2021 by the CBDT Notification No. 93/2020/F. No. 370142/35/2020-TPL. The assessee filed the original return of income on 09.02.2021 which is within the extended time limit. The entire tax liability has been discharged by way of TDS. The Ld. DR conceded to the submissions of the Ld. AR. 14.1 Interest under section 234A is levied only in cases where the assessee does not furnish its return of income or furnishes it after the due date prescribed under section 139 of the Act. The facts on record reveal that the assessee filed its return of income within the prescribed (extended) due date applicable to the relevant AY under consideration. Hence we deem it fit and proper to restore this issue to the file of the Ld. AO for verification as to the filing of date of return viz-a-viz the due date of filing of return for the AY 2020-21 in the light of the CBDT circular (supra) and decide it afresh in accordance with law. 15. Ground No. 7 relates to....