Taxability of foreign currency translation reserve: opening FCTR to be included in income unless previously recognised, requiring professional judgment.
The opening balance of the Foreign Currency Translation Reserve (FCTR) as on 1 April 2016 relating to exchange differences on monetary items for non integral foreign operations shall be recognised in the relevant previous year as income to the extent not previously included in income computation; the correctness of this recognition is debatable and requires appropriate professional judgment because conversion does not create real income and ICDS treatment may not apply to earlier years.

Foreign currency liabilities treatment: exchange differences on monetary items hit profit or loss; non monetary differences not taxable or deductible.
Section 43A does not apply to foreign currency liabilities for purchase of assets in India; such liabilities are governed by ICDS VI. Per ICDS VI para 5(i), exchange differences on monetary items are recognised in the profit and loss account, whereas exchange differences on non monetary items are neither taxable nor deductible.

Foreign exchange differences: monetary item gains and losses recognised as income or expense, non-monetary conversion differences excluded.
Exchange differences on monetary items (cash and assets or liabilities receivable or payable in fixed or determinate amounts of money) arising on settlement or on the last day of the financial year must be recognised as income or expense of that year. Exchange differences on non-monetary items arising on conversion at the last day of the year are not to be recorded as income or expense for that year.

Exchange difference recognition requires periodic recognition until final settlement, treated as income or expense for monetary items.
Exchange differences on monetary transactions settled after the end of the previous year must be recognised in each intervening period up to final settlement, with exchange gain or loss on settlement treated as income or expense, except for items relating to nonintegral foreign operations.

Foreign currency transaction recording: use transaction-date exchange rate or a stable weekly/monthly average when fluctuations are insignificant.
Under ICDS VI, a foreign currency transaction must be initially recorded in the reporting currency using the exchange rate on the transaction date; if rates do not fluctuate significantly from actuals, a weekly or monthly average rate may be used instead.