Cost Plus Method based on an internal comparable was treated as the most appropriate method for software development services where identical services were supplied to an independent entity at the same cost-plus mark-up. A traditional pricing method cannot be replaced by a transactional profit method without cogent reasons demonstrating its inadequacy, including proper consideration of the functions, assets and risks analysis. The services were at arm's length and the transfer-pricing adjustment was deleted. No interest adjustment arose on delayed associated-enterprise receivables because interest was not charged on comparable delayed payments by unrelated parties; that adjustment was also deleted.

Telecommunication-business tax treatment covers the timing and scope of deductions, revenue expenditure and transfer-pricing adjustments. Profits eligible for the telecommunication undertaking deduction include receipts with an integral business nexus, while Service from India Scheme incentives are excluded; the initial deduction year depends on when the claim was actually allowed. Annual telecom licence fees are subject to statutory amortisation rather than revenue deduction, whereas spectrum-use charges, ordinary advertising costs, subscriber-fraud losses and certain asset-restoration costs may be revenue expenditure. Automated domestic roaming payments and pre-paid distributor discounts do not require tax deduction at source. Brand-royal.....

Voluntary compensation for diminution in the value of unexercised employee stock options following corporate restructuring is not taxable as a perquisite or salary where it is not contractually or statutorily required, is paid without exercise, allotment, transfer, surrender, cancellation or repurchase of the options, and the employee retains the options. The proximate cause is the restructuring rather than employment. Payer-side tax deduction or Form 16 classification cannot create a tax charge absent satisfaction of the charging provisions. The payment also cannot be treated as profits in lieu of salary merely through an alternative salary provision.

For pre-amendment years, completed but unsold flats held by a builder as stock-in-trade are not subject to notional annual letting value under the general house-property provisions. The specific rule for stock-in-trade property applies prospectively from Assessment Year 2018-19, so its treatment cannot be extended to earlier years. Transfer-pricing adjustments to marketing brokerage require a recognised benchmarking method, reliable comparable or market evidence, and functional analysis of the services performed. Replacing an agreed brokerage rate with a general estimated market rate, without examining marketing, sales-support and customer-related functions, lacks an adequate arm's-length basis.

Partial appellate remand of transfer-pricing comparability issues, without setting aside or cancelling the assessment, requires effect to be given otherwise than through a fresh assessment. Where the remand requires fresh examination and hearing, the limitation period applicable to consequential action applies. A Tribunal remand to the Transfer Pricing Officer does not constitute an Assessing Officer's reference to that officer and therefore does not trigger the additional limitation extension available for such a reference. The consequential assessment, completed after the prescribed deadline, was quashed as time-barred; the remaining transfer-pricing challenges became infructuous.

TNMM benchmarking required exclusion of functionally dissimilar, diversified, and unsegmented companies from the comparable set for manufacturing and engineering-estimation segments. Intra-group support-service charges required fresh verification of evidence showing benefits received and benchmarking under TNMM; the issue was remanded. Business-connected reversals, miscellaneous income, foreign-exchange gains and export incentives were treated as operating income where related expenditure had been treated as operating, increasing the profit level indicator. In the extraordinary COVID-affected year, current-year margins of final comparables were required for comparison rather than weighted averages including normal years. Interest on overdue.....

Suppressed turnover arising from unrecorded sales generated in a disclosed business is assessable only to the embedded profit, absent evidence of unexplained investment or an independent undisclosed activity. Because gross receipts recover both cost and profit, historical profitability provides an objective estimation basis; a moderately higher margin may apply to incremental out-of-books realisation. Profit was estimated at 2%, restricting the turnover addition to that amount; the evidentiary value of individual Excel sheets remained undecided. Cash-payment disallowance requires payment-wise, person-wise and day-wise verification against the prescribed limit, rather than yearly ledger aggregates. Claimed Rule 6DD exceptions require supporting-material verification, and the disallowance was remanded for that limited examination.

Transfer-pricing benchmarking of back-office support services requires comparables with similar functions and risk profiles; specialised engineering, knowledge-process, outsourced, geographically distinct businesses and entities affected by extraordinary events were excluded, while one comparable was retained, requiring recomputation of the adjustment. A low-risk captive service provider is entitled to a working-capital adjustment on furnishing supporting computations. Separate notional interest on associated-enterprise receivables cannot be charged where receivables are already reflected in working-capital adjustment and service pricing, as this duplicates the adjustment. Associated-enterprise cost allocations incurred without mark-up cann.....

Intra-group services closely linked to core business operations may be benchmarked together under TNMM; where facts and the business model remain unchanged, earlier transfer-pricing treatment should be followed despite pending departmental appeals. The related transfer-pricing adjustments and connected branch-office expenditure and depreciation/depletion disallowances were accordingly deleted or allowed. Arm's-length interest on external commercial borrowings required fresh determination by the AO/TPO. Site-restoration costs incurred to discharge a contractual decommissioning obligation were allowable business expenditure despite utilisation of a provision. Refund interest depended on verification of issuance and encashment; TDS credit requ.....

Specific investigation information linking an unsecured loan to an alleged accommodation-entry lender can establish a live nexus for reassessment; conclusive proof of escaped income is not required when reasons are recorded. Reassessment was upheld on that basis. Confirmation and banking records alone do not establish an unsecured loan's creditworthiness or genuineness where the lender does not respond to statutory notice, is not produced for examination, and adverse investigation material remains unrebutted. The loan was treated as unexplained cash credit and related interest was disallowed. Business-loss set-off and carry-forward require sufficient material demonstrating compliance with statutory conditions; unsupported current-year and brought-forward loss claims were rejected.

Working capital adjustment in transfer pricing may neutralise margin differences arising from inventory, trade receivables and trade payables through the time value of funds. Rule 10B(3) permits adjustment where a difference materially affects price, cost or profit and can be eliminated by a reasonably accurate computation. Verification of the taxpayer's computation and supporting material is required before granting the adjustment. A CSR contribution disallowed as business expenditure may nevertheless qualify for a separate section 80G deduction. An appellate authority may entertain an additional claim arising from facts already on record, subject to verification of the donee's eligibility, payment, prescribed receipt, payment mode and deductible extent.

AE segmental benchmarking under TNMM requires consideration of segmental results included in the transfer-pricing study and certified information furnished before completion of the transfer-pricing assessment. Neither the Act nor the Rules requires audited segmental accounts; where the AE-segment margin falls within the arm's-length range of selected comparables, rejection on conjectural grounds is unwarranted and the related adjustment is deleted. Ind AS presentation of part of compulsorily convertible debentures as equity does not change their underlying debt character before actual conversion or redemption. Interest remains deductible in principle, subject to verification that no conversion or redemption occurred during the relevant year.

Section 28(9A) of the Customs Act suspends the adjudication limitation period while a specified circumstance prevents determination of duty liability, with the statutory period recommencing when that circumstance ceases. Transfer of a matter to the Call Book is an administrative consequence of such deferment and does not independently create the exclusion period. Where noticees seek deferment because a connected writ petition and interim protection affect the underlying duty liability, those circumstances are directly relevant to non-determination. Noticees' own request for deferment may substantially satisfy the communication requirement. The limitation period consequently runs from dismissal of the connected writ petition, and adjudication within the ensuing unextended one-year period is timely.

Sections 130 and 130E of the Customs Act exclude High Court appellate jurisdiction over questions relating to the rate of customs duty, including peripheral issues affecting assessment. Entitlement to customs-duty exemption for stores imported for vessel-salvage operations bears on the rate of duty and has wider application; it must therefore be challenged directly before the Supreme Court under Section 130E. Appeals raising that exemption issue are not maintainable before the High Court and are liable to be dismissed for want of jurisdiction, with the Revenue free to approach the Supreme Court.

Freezing of a bank account under section 110(5) of the Customs Act may initially continue for six months and be extended once for a further six months only on recorded written reasons. Issuance of a show-cause notice does not preserve investigating authorities' power to continue the freeze beyond the statutory maximum of twelve months. As the maximum period had expired, the High Court found a prima facie basis for de-freezing and directed the bank to de-freeze the account forthwith.

Non-compliance with import conditions for restricted gold renders the goods prohibited for confiscation purposes, whether the items are treated as gold bars or jewellery. Failure to meet eligible passenger, declaration and permissible-import requirements may support absolute confiscation. Redemption under Section 125 is discretionary rather than a right. Non-declaration, concealment and surrounding circumstances may justify refusal of redemption on payment of fine. Writ review does not ordinarily disturb that discretionary decision unless it is perverse or arbitrary. Absolute confiscation of the gold ornaments and refusal to permit redemption were upheld.

Written acceptance of customs reassessment may dispense with a speaking order but does not waive the statutory right to appeal. Declared transaction value cannot be rejected without complying with the Customs Act and Customs Valuation Rules: the importer must receive written grounds for doubting the declared value, and any redetermination must follow the prescribed sequential valuation method. Payment of enhanced duty under protest and undisclosed comparable-import data do not establish unconditional acceptance of enhanced value. Orders-in-Appeal rejecting valuation challenges solely because of acceptance letters were set aside, with consequential relief according to law.

Advance Authorisation IGST exemption remains subject to the pre-import condition; later fulfilment of export obligation or issuance of EODCs does not erase an established breach. Imports breaching that condition must instead be regularised under the prescribed procedure, with EODCs and redemption certificates relevant to liability. IGST breach must be quantified Bill of Entry-wise and raw material-wise by correlating imports, exports and chronology, while accounting for permitted clubbing of authorisations. The IGST demand requires fresh quantification on that basis. For the relevant period, recovery provisions did not independently authorise interest, confiscation, redemption fine or penalty for the IGST liability; those consequential liabilities were set aside, including interest on re-quantified IGST.

Rule 12 permits rejection of declared customs value only where there is reason to doubt its truth or accuracy, the importer has an opportunity to explain the price, and valuation follows the prescribed method, including contemporaneous import values where relevant. Unsupported intelligence and recovered documents did not establish undervaluation, rendering redetermination and differential duty unsustainable. Electronic data, messages, emails and invoices required statutory certification and reliable authentication; unauthenticated material could not prove undervaluation. Each IEC holder filing its own bill of entry remained the importer liable for duty, preventing recovery from an alleged proxy importer. Goods unavailable for confiscation could not attract confiscation or redemption fine.

Classification of specially designed GEHO slurry pump components depends on their sole or principal use where they may fall under more than one tariff heading. Pins, bolts, diaphragms, valves, gaskets, seals, bushes, liners and allied items manufactured exclusively for, and unusable with machines other than, the GEHO pump qualify as pump parts rather than parts of general use or independently classifiable rubber articles. The declared classification was sustained, while reclassification, differential duty, interest and penalties were set aside with consequential relief.