TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2026 (6) TMI 727
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....4B of the Income Tax Act, 1961 ["the Act" in short], for the Assessment Years 2017-18 & 2018-19, respectively. 2. Since common issues are involved in both the appeals, the same were heard together and are being disposed of by way of this consolidated order for the sake of convenience. ITA No.102/Ahd/2022 for AY 2017-18 is treated as the lead case. 3. The assessee has raised following grounds of appeal :- "1. Ground No. 1: General On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the Ld. National Faceless Assessment Centre ('NFAC', 'AO') under the directions of the Hon'ble Dispute Resolution Panel-2, Mumbai ('DRP'), has erred in making a transfer pricing adjustment of Rs. 24,37,68,967 ....
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....ntragroup services; 2.5 disregarding the cost allocation details by holding that the cost allocation details provided are for calendar year and not financial year, includes the cost for the period January to March 2016 and disregarding the basis of discounting factor; 2.6 Held that the intra-group service charges are mere allocation of cost and does not warrant any mark-up on it; 2.7 in observing that the payment of intra-group services in dispute overlaps with the payment of royalties on technology and therefore are not required to be paid separately to the AEs; 2.8 disregarding the benchmarking analysis conducted by the Appellant without providing any cogent reasons of rejection; and 2.9 not ap....
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.... Receipt of Central corporate and area (CCA) services 19,95,61,509 2 Receipt of Global Business Unit (GBU) services 1,62,97,255 3 Receipt of Information Technology (IT) services 2,79,10,203 Total 24,37,68,967 For AY 2018-19, the aggregate value of the aforesaid transactions amounted to Rs. 25,32,39,447/-. 4.1 The Assessing Officer, in the draft assessment orders, also made disallowances on account of salary, contractor and professional expenses on the ground of non-deduction of TDS. The Dispute Resolution Panel (DRP), granted partial relief by deleting certain disallowances relating to salary expenses but upheld the TP adjustments. The final assessment was completed accordingly, resulting in add....
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....L. Reliance was placed on the following judicial precedents to contend that ALP cannot be determined at NIL merely on subjective perception of benefit. (i) CIT vs. EKL Appliances Ltd. (ITA No. 1068 & 1070 of 2011) (Del HC); (ii) Tudor India Pvt. Ltd. [2019] 111 taxmann.com 450 (Guj.); (iii) Denso Haryana Pvt. Ltd. (ITA No. 3811/Del/2017 (Delhi Trib.). (iv) IAC International Automotive India Pvt. Ltd. [2025] 176 taxmann.com 263 (Pune Trib.) ; and (v) CRM Services India Pvt. Ltd. [2024] 161 taxmann.com 508 (Delhi Trib.) 7. The Ld. DR supported the orders of the lower authorities and submitted that the assessee failed to demonstrate tangible benefit from the services and that the evidences furnis....
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....n the past & so can also not be any acceptance of proposal. Thus this agreement is void agreement ab initio. Therefore, any transactions done before the date of execution of this agreement are not valid. The agreement is a self-serving document created only for mutual tax benefits. Such agreements are no agreements in the eyes of law since are back dated. 2 Agreement of Provisioning of IT Services 3,61,25,100 This agreement to take retrospective effect from April 1^st 2014 (page no 525 Article-1 & 2) & it shall continue until 31-Dec-2015) This agreement started & also ended in the past AYs; hence this agreement is not valid for the AY in reference & it's a void agreement since not relevant to the time period under considerati....
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....supporting documentation. We observe that the assessee has placed on record detailed service agreements, allocation keys, cost pool workings, and contemporaneous evidence such as emails, presentations, and independent audit certificates to demonstrate actual receipt of services. The assessee has also explained the need, nature and utilization of services in its business operations. Once the existence of services and their receipt is demonstrated, the ALP cannot be determined at NIL merely on subjective perception of benefit. We further note that the DRP has also accepted that services were rendered, though it upheld the TP adjustment without adequate reasoning to disregard the detailed evidences furnished by the assessee. In view of the com....