Tax withholding certificate challenged for failure to apply precedent; authority ordered to issue a reduced treaty-based deduction certificate.

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....Petition challenges a Competent Authority withholding certificate applying a treaty-based higher withholding rate to a non-resident US company; the authority failed to apply the settled precedent and did not record reasons for the elevated rate, rendering the certificate unsustainable. The court rejected Revenue submissions that assessment-stage scrutiny justified the certificate, held the absence of proper precedent application and reasoning was decisive, and directed issuance of a reduced treaty-based deduction certificate for the relevant year to mitigate undue withholding while permitting substantive tax scrutiny later.....