Referred Sections: Section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 Section 154 of the income tax act Section 92CA of the act , Section 2 (28C) Section 117 of the act. Sections 92C and 92D of the act. Section 151(2) of the act. Section 132(1). Section 2(28D) of the said Act. Section 144C of the act Section 234D of the Act.”
Referred Cases / Judgments: CIT vs Pankaj Garg (2011) 334 ITR 240 (Delhi) Deputy Commissioner of income tax vs Cheil communications private limited [ ITA number 712/del/2010],
INCOME TAX APPELLATE TRIBUNAL
DELHI BENCH "I-2": NEW DELHI
BEFORE SHRI KULDIP SINGH, JUDICIAL MEMBER
AND
SHRI PRASHANT MAHARISHI, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER
ITA No. 996 &3007/Del/2011
(Assessment Year: 2002-03, 2003-04 )
DCIT, Vs. M/s. BBC Worldwide
Circle-2(1), (India) Pvt. Ltd, 518-
New Delhi 522, World Trade
Centre, Baba Road,
New Delhi
PAN: AABCB5209Q
(Appellant) (Respondent)
CO No. 315 & 231/Del/2011 & 2012
(In ITA No. 996 /Del/2011, 3007/Del/2011 & 495/Del/2012)
(Assessment Year: 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2005-06)
M/s. BBC Worldwide (India) Vs. DCIT,
Pvt. Ltd, 518-522, World Circle-2(1),
Trade Centre, Baba Road, New Delhi
New Delhi
PAN: AABCB5209Q
(Appellant) (Respondent)
ITA No. 5441/Del/2014
(Assessment Year: 2007-08)
M/s. BBC Global News Vs. ACIT,
India Pvt Ltd Circle-2(1),
(formerly known as BBC New Delhi
World (India) Pvt. Ltd,
Unit No. 3.1, 3rd Floor,
Sourthern Park, Plot No. D-
2, Saket District Centre,
New Delhi 110016
PAN: AABCB5209Q
(Appellant) (Respondent)
ITA No. 495 /Del/2011
(Assessment Year: 2005-06)
Page | 1
ACIT, Vs. M/s. BBC Worldwide
Circle-2(1), (India) Pvt. Ltd, 518-
New Delhi 522, World Trade
Centre, Baba Road, New
Delhi
PAN: AABCB5209Q
(Appellant) (Respondent)
CO No. 51 & 52/Del/2012
(In ITA No. 495 & 5640/Del/2011)
(Assessment Year: 2004-05 & 2005-06)
M/s. BBC World (India) Pvt. Vs. ACIT,
Ltd, 518-522, World Trade Circle-2(1),
Centre, Baba Road, New New Delhi
Delhi
PAN: AABCB5209Q
(Appellant) (Respondent)
ITA No. 5556/Del/2014
(Assessment Year: 2007-08)
DCIT, Vs. M/s. BBC World (India)
Circle-2(1), Pvt. Ltd,
New Delhi E-21, Hauz Khas
Market,
New Delhi
PAN: AABCB5209Q
(Appellant) (Respondent)
ITA No. 5640/Del/2014
(Assessment Year: 2004-05)
ACIT, Vs. M/s. BBC World (India)
Circle-2(1), Pvt. Ltd,
New Delhi E-21, Hauz Khas
Market,
New Delhi
PAN: AABCB5209Q
(Appellant) (Respondent)
Page | 2
ITA No. 4304/Del/2010
(Assessment Year: 2006-07)
M/s. BBC World (India) Pvt. Vs. Income Tax Officer,
Ltd, Ward-2(4),
E-21, Hauz Khas Market, New Delhi
New Delhi
PAN: AABCB5209Q
(Appellant) (Respondent)
For Assessee Shri Gaurav Gupta,Adv.
For Revenue Shri H.K. Choudhary, CIT
DR
Shri Rakesh Kumar, Sr. DR
Date of Hearing 25/07/2019
Date of pronouncement 18/10/2019
ORDER
PER BENCH
1. This is the bunch of 11 appeals and cross objections by the
parties in case of one Assessee , appellant/respondent involving
similar issue and therefore they are heard together and disposed
of by this common order.
ITA number 996/del/2011 and CO number 315/del/2011
assessment year 2002 03
2. ITA number 996/del/2011 is filed by the Deputy Commissioner
Of Income Tax, central circle 2 (1), New Delhi (the learned AO)
against the order of The Commissioner Of Income Tax (Appeals)
XX, New Delhi dated 30/12/2010. The Revenue has raised the
following grounds of appeal for the Assessment Year 2002-03:-
"1. The ld CIT(A) has erred on facts and in law in deleting
addition of Rs. 3,52,71,454/- made on account of transfer
pricing adjustment as:-
Page | 3
a. The ld CIT(A) has erred in law in accepting the
assesse's contention that it is only intermediary
between third party and AE.
b. The soul of the market support services functions is
present in India as the assessee company is
responsible for discharging such functions as an
independent organization and a lot of effect is required
to be put into by it providing business promotion and
research services and, therefore, it needs to be
adequately compensated for such efforts. Therefore,
such cost cannot be ignored and excluded for the
purpose of computation of Arm's Length Price of Market
support services fee."
3. The assessee has raised the following grounds of appeal in Cross
objection No. 315/Del/2011 in ITA No. 996/Del/2011 for the
Assessment Year 2002-03:-
"1. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, we
wish to rely on order dated December 30, 2010 issued under
section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 passed by
Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals)-XX, New Delhi."
4. Brief facts of the case for that year shows that assessee filed its
return of income on 30/10/2010 declaring loss of Rs
29905615/. During the year, the assessee has acted like as an
authorised agent for BBC worldwide Ltd (UK entity) for
soliciting orders for sale of Air time, advertisement on BBC world
channel, besides other market support services like collection of
revenue, providing marketing, public relations and distributing
services for its principles.
5. During the year, it was found that assessee has undertaken
international transaction as per form No. 3CEB filed along
with the return of income and therefore the case of the assessee
was referred to the learned Transfer Pricing Officer on
10/12/2003 u/s 92CA of the income tax act.
Page | 4
6. The learned Transfer Pricing Officer passed an order u/s 92CA
(3) of The Income Tax Act on 31st of March 2004 wherein only
dispute was with respect to the market support services
agreement of the assessee.
7. The assessee has entered into an agreement with BBC worldwide
Ltd to act as an exclusive agent for marketing and distribution of
BBC world channel in India, to carry out research in respect of
performance and viewership of BBC world channel in India and
to carry out distribution and marketing activities of BBC world
channel with appropriate promotional material provided by them
from time to time. The assessee was primarily engaged to
promote and enlarge the viewer of BBC world channel in India.
For such services, the assessee charged as per terms of
agreement cost +10% mark up. The assessee rendered total
market support services revenue of INR 73780695/. The learned
transfer pricing officer noted that no significant assets employed
for this function except normal office appliances, furniture
vehicles etc. and no significant risk was also assumed apart from
minor risk of fluctuation in the exchange rate for its foreign
exchange loans and its use. The assessee has also entered into
another international transaction with issue of media Inst for
providing trainers to them for running the news journalism
course at the Institute where the salaries were reimbursed to the
assessee on cost to cost basis without any mark up. The total
receipt from the same was INR 15.5 lakhs against the
expenditure of INR 20 140 08/02/2003/. Assessee has also
taken pound dominated external commercial borrowing of INR
1,000,000 for working capital requirements where part of the
loan is s interest free and other loan on interest rate of LIBOR
Page | 5
+0.06 percentage. The method adopted by the assessee for
benchmarking of the other international transaction was CUP
Method and assessee has compared the rate of commission
charged by it with the commission charged by an unrelated 3rd
party in India who paid commission at the rate of 10% for
marketing advertisement Air Time sponsorship for BBC world
channel in India.
8. For market support services it was found that the functions
performed by the assessee are much simpler thus it was taken as
tested party. The assessee selected Transactional Net Margin
Method [ TNMM] for determination of arm's-length price using
net profit based on cost [ NP/ TC] as profit level indicator . As
the assessee has earned the margin of 10% on cost from these
activities, the assessee selected prowess database which resulted
into a set of 5 independent comparable companies and stated
that the international transaction of the assessee is at arm's-
length. The learned TPO noted that assessee is broadly
functioning in two categories (1) market support services, (2)
marketing and promotion of advertisement air time on BBC
channel. He noted that in the profit and loss account the total
receipts are INR 97868237 and the total expenditure is INR
125075588 and thus there is a loss of INR 27207351. The
assessee was asked to furnish the segmental profit and
segmental expenditure, as well as the policy for allocating
different expenses to different business segments. He noted that
certain expenses such as directors' salary and other expenses
relating to office, common administrative expenses such as rent
etc are not identified with either of these activities and thus not
allocated. He noted that out of the total administrative expenses
Page | 6
of INR 239,00,000/- , INR 5,775,000 have been allocated to the
market support service function. It was allocated in the ratio of
number of employees engaged in the market support services to
the total number of employees. However, no such allocation has
been made out of the expenses of the finance division and
expenses of the director's office including their salaries. He
further raised query that why the cost relating to the finance
division, administration and directors office was not allocated to
the market support services while computing the net profit of the
cost plus margin from these activities. Assessee also contested
that , third party cost cannot be included in the cost base of
the assessee, as it does not have any margin in absence of any
value addition by assessee. After considering the reply furnished
by the assessee, he reached at a conclusion that though
assessee has used Transactional Net Margin Method to
determine the arm's-length price of market support service fee
income but the method adopted by the assessee to justify the
arm's-length nature of the transaction is nothing but a Modified
Cost Plus Method which is also the most suitable method to
determine the arm's-length price in case of a service provider.
Thereafter, he computed the expenses attributable to the market
support service function and Airtime sale function by including
the direct expenses and indirect common expenses. Such total
expenses was worked out at INR 101978926/. The total receipt
of these services was INR 73780695/ and thus he found that
assessee has incurred a loss of Rs 28198231/. As according to
him assessee has incurred a loss of Rs. 28198231 in the market
support service function, this amount of loss was compared with
the profit margin of the comparable companies engaged in
Page | 7
broadly similar functions for the purpose of determination of
arm's-length price of market service fee. Thereafter after making
a fresh search process, he identified seven comparable
companies whose Arithmetic mean of net margin over cost was
7.63%. Thereafter, he took the total cost of market support
service as computed by him at INR 101978926/ applied AM
7.63% over the cost of comparable companies thus such cost was
Rs. 7780990/ and therefore the total support service fee that
should have been received by the assessee was determined at
INR 109759916/. Accordingly, he proposed an adjustment of
INR 35979221 because of ALP of International Transaction of
market support services fee income. Accordingly he passed an
order u/s 92CA (3) on 31/3/2004.
9. Consequently order u/s 143 (3) of the income tax act was passed
on 4/2/2005, wherein the above adjustment was made along
with the addition on account of the exchange rate variation of
INR 7426280/. Accordingly total income was computed at INR
12592119/. Subsequently assessee preferred an application
under section 154 of the income tax act before the learned
transfer pricing officer wherein the above adjustment was
reduced to INR 35271454/.
10. Aggrieved with the order of the learned assessing officer, assessee
preferred an appeal before the Commissioner Of Income Tax
(Appeals) XX, New Delhi. The learned CIT A noted that the
following 3 issues are required for adjudication:-
a. whether the third-party costs that are reimbursed by the
associated enterprise to the appellant should form part of
the cost base on which markup is to be applied
Page | 8
b. what should be the basis of allocation of indirect expenses
among the airtime sale segment and market support
services segment
c. whether the interest expenses and exchange loss are to be
considered as operating expenses
11. The learned CIT A held that the learned Transfer Pricing Officer
has incorrectly held that third-party expenses have to be
included in the cost base of the appellant and appropriately
markup. Based on this finding he computed that the direct cost
of market support services is INR 16,900,000 and allocated
indirect tax based on the payroll cost is Rs 12.12 Mn. . Therefore
the total cost of market support service segment is Rs.
29,020,000. He applied the profit margin of 6.44% on such cost
and therefore determined the arm's-length price of the market
support service segment at INR 30,880,000, whereas the
revenue of the appellant from the above services was found to be
Rs. 31,930,000/- . Therefore, he held that the international
transaction of the appellant with respect to the provision of
market support services complies with the arm's-length standard
under the Indian transfer pricing regulations.
12. The learned assessing officer aggrieved with the order of the
learned CIT A in deleting the addition of INR 35271454/
holding that assessee's contention that it is only intermediary
between the 3rd party and the associated enterprise, therefore
there is no mark up required on this cots. Thus CIT A has not
considered those cost in to cost base of the assessee. The
contention of the TPO is that market support service function is
performed in India as the assessee company is responsible for
Page | 9
discharging such functions as an independent organization and
lot of effort is required to be put into by it for providing business
promotion and research services. Therefore, it needs to be
adequately compensated for such an effort. Therefore, such 3rd
party cost cannot be ignored and excluded for the purpose of
computation of arm's-length price of market support service fees.
13. The assessee has also filed across objection, which is supportive
in nature. However during the course of hearing assessee has
raised an additional ground of cross objection as under:
That on the facts and circumstances of the case and in law,
the order passed by TPO and, consequential order passed by
the AO are not valid as the same have not been passed by
the prescribed authority under the provisions of the income
tax act 1961.
As the additional ground raised in cross objection is legal and
goes to the root of the matter which is essential for the
dissension of the substantial justice, same was requested for
admission. He referred to the plethora of judicial precedent
stating that legal ground can be raised at any point of time.
14. The Ld Dr vehemently opposed such additional ground stating
that assessee has not raised such ground before the AO, CIT
(A), Or TPO, therefore, same cannot be raised now.
15. We have carefully considered the rival contention. We find that
the ground raised by the assessee in the cross objection is purely
legal and goes to the root of the matter which does not require
any further investigation into the facts of the case and further
distension of the substantial justice, we admit the same.
Page | 10
16. Now, We first proceed to decide the cross objection raised by the
assessee. The original ground raised in the cross objection is
merely supportive in nature, no arguments were advanced by the
assessee and therefore same is dismissed.
17. Coming to the additional ground, the assessee submitted that
order passed u/s 92CA of the act was passed by The Additional
Commissioner Of Income Tax. It is mainly contested that he is
not the authorised officer to pass such an order. Assessee
referred to the meaning of the `Transfer Pricing Officer" under
explanation to section 92CA of the act , wherein it is mentioned
that for the purpose of the above section the `Transfer Pricing
Officer' means a Joint Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner or
Assistant Commissioner , authorised by the board to perform all
or any of the functions of an `Assessing Officer' specified in
section 92C and 92D in respect of any person or class of persons.
Thus the assessee stated that only 3 income tax authorities
namely Joint Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner Or Assistant
Commissioner are duly authorised by the CBDT to functions as a
transfer pricing officer. Therefore, it is submitted that the
authority given by the statute to Joint Commissioner cannot be
exercised by Additional Commissioner and therefore the order
passed by The Additional Commissioner under section 92CA of
the act is ultra virus, null and void. The assessee also relied
upon the decision of the honourable Delhi High Court in CIT vs
Pankaj Gupta 334 ITR 240 wherein it has been held that when
the power is given to do a certain thing in a certain manner, the
same must be done in that manner or not at all and that all
other proceedings are necessarily forbidden. He further relied
upon the decision of the honourable Delhi High Court in 52
Page | 11
taxmann.com 336, 17 taxmann.com 138 and the decision of the
honourable Bombay High Court in 346 ITR 443. Therefore, he
submitted that the Legislature in its wisdom has empowered only
Assistant Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner And Joint
Commissioner To discharge the functions of the Transfer Pricing
Officer and therefore The Additional Commissioner is not
permitted to discharge such functions since the such officer has
not been included in the definition of the Transfer Pricing
Officer u/s 92CA of Act. Therefore any order passed by
Additional Commissioner u/s 92CA is ultra virus the provisions
of the act and without jurisdiction and therefore void ab initio.
Thus, he submitted that the transfer pricing order dated
30/11/2004 for assessment year 2002 03 u/s 92CA of the act
passed by The Additional Commissioner Of Income Tax i.e. an
authority, which is not expressly included by Legislature in the
definition of the Transfer Pricing Officer is invalid.
18. Countering the submission of the learned authorised
representative, the learned departmental representative referred
to provision of explanation to section 92CA of the income tax act.
He referred those authorities who are called Transfer Pricing
Officer such as Joint Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner And
Assistant Commissioner. He further referred the provisions of
section 2 (28C) where the Joint Commissioner is defined. He
submitted that Joint Commissioner means a person appointed to
be Joint Commissioner Of Income Tax or an Additional
Commissioner Of Income Tax under subsection (1) of section 117
of the act. Thus he submitted that there is no reason to interpret
the explanation to section 92CA of the income tax act to exclude
Additional Commissioner from the definition of Transfer Pricing
Page | 12
Officer. He further submitted that it is not the case of the
learned authorised representative that The Additional
Commissioner who passed order u/s 92CA (3) of the income tax
act was not authorised by the central board of direct taxes.
Thus, he submitted that the argument of the learned authorised
representative does not find any merit. He submitted that the
judicial precedent cited by the learned authorised representative
does not apply to the facts of the case. He submitted that all
those decisions are on the different facts that the jurisdiction has
been exercised by the higher authorities other than the
authorities which are authorised by the income tax act. He
further submitted that in the decision of the honourable Delhi
High Court in case of Mr Pankaj Gupta the issue was quite
different as there was an issue of authorization by the central
board of direct taxes.
19. We have carefully considered the rival contention. Admittedly
according to the provisions of Explanation to section 92 CA of
the act Transfer Pricing officer for the purposes of the section of
92 CA of the act is
`Explanation.--For the purposes of this
section, "Transfer Pricing Officer" means a
Joint Commissioner or Deputy Commissioner
or Assistant Commissioner authorised by the
Board17 to perform all or any of the functions
of an Assessing Officer specified in sections
92C and 92D in respect of any person or class
of persons.]"
Provisions of section 2 (28C) of the Act defines the Joint
Commissioner means a person appointed to be a Joint
Page | 13
Commissioner Of Income Tax Or An Additional Commissioner Of
Income Tax under subsection (1) of section 117 of the income tax
act. Further with retrospective effect from 01/06/1994 section 2
(1C) was inserted by finance act 2007 to define Additional
Commissioner means a person appointed to be an Additional
Commissioner Of Income Tax under subsection (1) of section 117
of the act . Further, it is not the case of the assessee that such
Additional Commissioner of income tax, who passed an order
u/s 92CA (3) of the income tax act, was not an authorised officer
by the central board of direct taxes. Reliance placed by the
learned authorised representative on the decision of the
honourable Delhi High Court in 58 taxmann.com 336 decided
the issue that Where re-assessment proceedings were initiated
after expiry of four years from end of relevant years, sanction for
issuance of notice for re-assessment proceedings was to be
granted by Joint Commissioner and not by commissioner as per
provisions of section 151(2) of the act. Therefore, in that case
notice was to be issued by the joint Commissioner, which was
issued by the Commissioner. Such is not the case before us.
Therefore, the reliance on this decision does not help the case of
the assessee. Further, the reliance placed by the assessee on the
decision of the honourable Delhi High Court in 17 taxmann.com
138 (Delhi) also does not help the case of the assessee as in that
case it was held that Where Assessing Officer instead of taking
approval from Joint Commissioner as per provisions of section
151, obtained approval from Commissioner and issued notice
under section 148, said notice was invalid. Reliance placed by
the authorised representative on the case of CIT vs Pankaj Garg
(2011) 334 ITR 240 (Delhi) wherein the issue was that the
Page | 14
second warrant of authorization in respect of the said locker was
issued by the Additional Director, Income-tax (Investigation). The
Additional Director does not find mention in the provisions of
section 132(1). However, it was contended by the learned counsel
for the revenue that the Additional Director would be covered in
the expression 'Joint Director' in view of the provisions of section
2(28D) of the said Act. The court held that Even assuming that
the expression 'Joint Director' as used in section 132(1) includes
an Additional Director, such Additional Director or Joint Director
would have to have initial empowerment by the Board to issue
warrants of authorization in view of the provisions of section
132(1)(B). Therefore the only issue before the honourable Delhi
High Court was whether the warrant issued by the additional
director who was not empowered by the central board of direct
taxes is a valid warrant or not. The honourable High Court held
so only for the reason that there was no authorization by the
board in favour of the additional director. Here it is not the case
of the assessee that the additional Commissioner of income tax
who passed the order of the transfer pricing under section 92CA
(3) of the act was not authorised by the central board of direct
taxes to perform all or any of the functions of an assessing officer
specified u/s 92C of the Act. In view of this, the reliance on the
above decision of the honourable Delhi High Court does not
support the case of the assessee. Thus we hold that, the order
passed by the additional Commissioner of income tax u/s 92CA
(3) of the income tax act is appellate order passed by a transfer
pricing officer in case of the assessee for assessment year 2002
03. In view of this, the additional ground raised by the assessee
in the cross objection is dismissed.
Page | 15
20. Accordingly, the CO of the assessee is dismissed.
21. Now we come to the appeal of the learned assessing officer. The
one of the issue involved in the appeal of the revenue is that
whether third-party cost should be included in the total cost of
the assessee for providing marketing support services and
therefore markup thereon should also be placed to determine the
arm's-length price of the market support and services fee on by
the assessee.
22. The learned departmental representative referred the paragraph
number 5 of the order of the learned transfer-pricing officer
wherein this issue was discussed. He submitted that the learned
transfer pricing officer has held that the agreement entered
between the assessee as well as the associated , it is apparent
that assessee did not have any independent business interest in
India. He further referred to para number 5.1 of the order
wherein the learned transfer pricing officer has held that the
assessee has claimed the deduction of all the expenses in the
computation of the total income including the expenses not
allocated to any income generating activity and therefore such
expenses have been incurred by the assessee for the purpose of
the business of the assessee. He further referred to paragraph
number 5.3 of the order of the learned transfer pricing officer
where the contention of the assessee has been considered that
expenses not allocated by it to either of the business activity
cannot be attributed either of the 2 business activity, cannot be
held to be correct. Thus, it cannot be said that the expenditure
which has not been allocated by the assessee to the market
support services are not to be included in the cost base of the
assessee is a correct facts. He further submitted that the
Page | 16
material and the cost incurred by the assessee which is said to
be third-party cost is in fact (i) incurred by the assessee, (ii)
routed through the profit and loss account, (iii) the invoices are
in the name of the assessee, (iv) payment is made by the
assessee, (v) service provider is identified by the assessee, (vi)
price negotiation is also done by the assessee, (vii) the full risk
and reward of such purchases and expenses rest on the
assessee, therefore, such expenses cannot be held to be third-
party cost incurred by the assessee as an agent of the associated
enterprise. He submitted that the fact shows that these
expenses are incurred by the assessee for the provision of the
market support services and therefore should have been included
in the cost base of the assessee for determining the arm's-length
price of the international transaction. He further submitted that
agreement between the assessee and associated enterprise is not
available on record or neither filed before the learned transfer
pricing officer or the learned CIT A. He therefore submitted
that the learned CIT A could not have said that such cost is not
the cost of market support services. He extensively referred to
the remand report dated 24/11/2010 placed at page number 133
of the paper book, wherein during the course of appellate
proceedings, the assessee has claimed that the in respect of
market support segment, there are third-party expenses with
respect to distribution of digital satellite receivers and
commission paid for selling them of Rs 11.86 millions
cumulatively and further sales promotion marketing and other
expenses of Rs 29,990,000. The assessee has contended before
the learned CIT Appeal that these expenses have been in the
nature of the pass-through expenses (non-value-added) and
Page | 17
should be considered for remuneration on cost to cost basis on
which they have been actually reimbursed. Acordingly they are
not part of operating expenses. He submitted that in para
number 5.6 and 5.7 of the order of the learned transfer-pricing
officer the above issue has been discussed at threadbare, for
those reasons these expenses cannot be kept out of the cost
basis. He further referred to the para number 2 of the remand
report, wherein it has been stated that the appellant itself in the
submission before the learned CIT appeal has contended that the
expenses of distribution and commission is part of facilitation
and coordination and in the same light it is contended that since
these do not relate to the efforts of its employees the same are
third-party expenses ought to be reimbursed on cost to cost
basis. He submitted that these expenses relate to the
coordination and facilitation activities. Hence they cannot be kept
out of the cost base. Therefore he submitted that the cost
pertaining to the promotion of the business of the overseas
associated enterprise have to be reimbursed with appropriate
mark up. He further referred to the annual accounts of the
company and submitted that no amount has been certified by
the auditors to be the `cost to cost' reimbursement and purported
to be kept out of the profit and loss account. He referred to
schedule 10 of the profit and loss account , which shows that
dealers commission of Rs 2130,000 and distribution expenses of
INR 9,730,000 are part of operating expenses and therefore there
remains no doubt that this would have to be considered as a part
of cost base for transactional net margin method analysis of the
margin of the assessee. He therefore submitted that the order of
the learned CIT A removing the above cost from the cost base
Page | 18
holding that it is a third-party cost is devoid of any merit. He
further referred to the various bills produced by the assessee in
the paper book to submit that these bills are in the name of the
assessee and it cannot be said that these are reimbursed on cost-
to-cost basis to the assessee.
23. Countering the argument of the learned departmental
representative the learned authorised representative submitted
as under:-
i. During Financial Years 2001-02, relevant to AY 2002-
03, Assessee's function / role under the applicable
agreement for provision of services, dated March 21,
2001, was as under:
"1) BWIPL ("BBC Worldwide (India) Private
Limited") shall act as BBCW's (BBC Worldwide
Limited) exclusive agent for marketing and
distribution of the television channel BBC World
to cable operators and, as and when approved by
the Indian government, to any other broadcast
distribution systems in India. BWIPL shall
further carry out research in respect of the
performance and viewership of BBC World in
India and communicate the results of all such
research to BBCW.
2) BBCW shall provide BWIPL from time to time with
appropriate promotional material to assist BWIPL
in carrying out its distribution and marketing
activities.
3) In consideration for the provision of the above
services by BWIPL, BBCW shall pay BWIPL such
amount as shall be sufficient to cover the
operating costs (including appropriate overhead)
which shall be incurred by BWIPL in providing
the above services, together with an additional
payment of 10% of such costs. The level of such
costs shall be agreed in advance by BBCW and
BWIPL on an annual basis."
ii. From the aforesaid clauses of the agreement, it is
apparent that the Assessee was acting as exclusive
agent of its AE. Further, for services rendered under
the agreement, the AE was obligated to pay operating
costs (including appropriate overhead) along with
Page | 19
mark-up of 10%. It may be noted that the 'operating
cost' referred to above is the cost of operation as an
'agent', i.e., intermediary (operating at low risk) and
not as a full-fledged entrepreneur.
iii. It is humbly submitted that 'operating cost' of low risk
agent cannot be substituted by / comparable to
'operating cost' of a full-fledged entrepreneur which
are themselves rendering marketing / advertisement
services. Thus, scope of term 'operating cost' has to be
restricted having regard to the function / role of
Assessee.
iv. Further, attention is invited to the order passed by
TPO, under section 92CA(3) of the Act, wherein it has
been inter alia observed:
"Market Support Services (MSS)
BWIPL has entered into an agreement with BBCW,
i) to act as an exclusive agent for marketing and
distribution of BBC World Channel in India ii) to
carry out research in respect of the performance
and viewership of BBC World channel in India and
iii) to carry out distribution and marketing
activities of BBCW with appropriate promotional
material provided by BBCW from time to time.
Broadly speaking, the primary objective of all such
activities is to promote and enlarge the viewership
of BBC World Channel in India. For such services,
BWIPL charges BBCW, as per the terms of the
agreement, on the basis of'cost plus 10% markup'
BWIPL does not assume any significant risk in
this function apart from minor risk of fluctuation
in exchange rate for its foreign exchange loans and
dues."
[Refer internal page 2 of the TP Order]
v. From the perusal of the aforesaid para of the transfer
pricing order under section 92CA of the Act, it is
apparent that the Assessee was primarily acting as
"exclusive agent of its AE" and the Assessee was not
assuming any significant risk for its function apart
from risk of foreign exchange fluctuation.
vi. Attention is also invite to the Remand report furnished
by the TPO, dated November 24, 2010, before the
CIT(A), wherein again it has been conceded, as under:
(ii) However the assessee has contended that its
main role in this year was to provide
coordination and facilitation services to its AE.
Page | 20
This fact has not been disputed by the TPO and it
is also to be made clear that the assessee has to
be suitable compensated for such activities.
There are detailed agreements with the AE and
the same have been carefully considered by the
TPO also "
vii. From the aforesaid observations / findings of the TPO,
it is apparent that the Revenue had accepted that
Assessee was acting as Low Risk (pure) Agent of its' AE
during the previous year relevant to AY 2002-03.
viii. Accordingly, expenditures incurred for and on behalf of
the AE should not form part of 'operating cost' of
Assessee, and consequently, mark-up could not be
recovered on such pass through / third party costs /
non-value added expenses, incurred by Assessee for
and on behalf of the AE.
ix. It is submitted that while performing its functions as
exclusive agent for its AE, Assessee paid third party
expenses on behalf of its AE for administrative
convenience and such third party expenses had no
cogent nexus with agency functions of Assessee. The
functions of Assessee (as an exclusive agent) was to
provide assistance to AE in execution of their
decisions pertaining to incurrence of such pass
through / third party costs. The same is evident from
the nature of expenses. Sample copy of the invoices is
placed in the Paper Book for AY 2002-03 at Page 107
to 132.
x. It is submitted that, in relation to the aforesaid
expenses the role of Assessee was to merely provide
trifling co-ordination and facilitation to the AE. These
expenses are mere out-of-pocket expenses incurred by
Assessee in providing assistance to its AE.
xi. Further, these third party expenses / pass through
costs were paid to un-related parties and have no
cogent nexus with the agency function / intermediary
role which was performed by Assessee.
xii. It is further submitted that such expenses were not
incurred in the course of providing some value added
services to the AE, in fact, by incurring such expenses
Assessee had not performed any value added function
relating to such costs / expenses.
xiii. It is further submitted that Assessee neither had any
control on the outcome of these pass through
expenses / third party cost, nor had any obligation /
risk towards the AE for such outcome, being pure
agent acting on behalf of its AE. Further, Assessee had
no control on budget relating to such expenses and it
Page | 21
did not even bear any risk in this regard.
xiv. In view of aforesaid, it may be summaried that
Assessee had not performed any value added function
by paying for these expenses and, in any case, these
transactions were entered into with third parties
which were already at arm's length, i.e., profit
attributable to such activities were already subject to
tax in the hands of such third party. Therefore, such
third party costs which are reimbursed by the AE to
the Assessee (without any value addition on the part of
Assessee) are actually "pass through" or "third party
costs" or "non-value adding" cost and had been rightly
excluded from the cost base.
24. We have carefully considered the rival contentions and perused
the orders of the lower authorities. The only dispute in this
ground of appeal of the revenue is that what should be the cost
for working out PLI of the assessee for benchmarking
international transactions. For market support services the
assessee has applied transactional net margin method with
operating profit/operating cost as the profit level indicator with
respect to the market support services segment. The method has
been accepted by the transfer-pricing officer and there is no
dispute with respect to the comparables chosen by the appellant.
The fact shows that for the purpose of working out the cost base
for determination of the arm's-length price in case of marketing
support services, expenses of INR 2 3691597/ on sales
promotion and expense of INR 6 296509 on research are
specifically incurred by the assessee for undertaking certain
specific activities for the associated enterprise. Such expenses
are taken as out-of-pocket expenses incurred by the assessee
and therefore the contention of the assessee is that it does not
warrant any mark up in the context of determination of arm's-
length price. The learned transfer-pricing officer held that
assessee is not acting merely as an agent or intermediary in
Page | 22
provision of such services for business promotion and research
etc. According to the terms of the agreement assessee is
responsible for conceptualization, planning and execution of the
entire market support services and is not performing such
services based on day-to-day instructions form associated
enterprise. According to the learned transfer pricing officer, in
other words, it can be said that soul of such function is present
in India, as assessee is responsible for discharging its market
support service function as an independent organization and a
lot of effort is required to be put into it for providing business
promotion and research services. Therefore it needs to be
adequately compensated for such efforts. Therefore, the learned
transfer-pricing officer held that such expenditure couldn't be
excluded from the cost base while working out the profit level
indicator in case of the assessee. The learned CIT A held that
these expenses are in the nature of pass through expenses as the
appellant is just acting as a conduit between the associated
enterprises and 3rd party vendor. The appellant is merely acting
as an agent of the associated enterprise. Further the decision to
incur these expenses has been taken by the associated enterprise
and the entire budget with respect to these expenses controlled
by the associated enterprise. Therefore, the learned CIT A as
per para number 20 of his order has held that the 3rd party cost
incurred by the assessee do not represent any value-added
activity carried out by the appellant as the appellant was engaged
in rendering market support services to its associated enterprise
in the capacity of an agent. He further held that the assessee
operates as an agent of the associated enterprise and the
relationship between the appellant and the 3rd party vendor does
Page | 23
not constitute a `principal to principal' relationship. He further
reaches at the conclusion that the decisions with respect to
payment are to be made to the 3rd party vendor's by the
associated enterprises. He further relied upon the para number
2.93 and para number 7.36 of the 2010 OECD Transfer Pricing
Guidelines to support his decision wherein the pass through
costs are excluded from the cost base. This was relied upon by
the assessee before him. He further accepted the argument of
the assessee that if third party costs are included as part of its
cost base, it would be changing the characterization of the
assessee as an entrepreneur and therefore, the 3rd party cost
cannot be included in the cost base of the appellant. With
respect to accounting of this 3rd party cost as income and
expenditure of the assessee in the profit and loss account, he
held that it cannot be treated as a governing law with respect to
the treatment of expenses viz a viz the transfer pricing regulation.
He further held that the arm's-length nature of the international
transactions is not affected by the accounting treatment. He
further relied upon the decision of the coordinate bench in case
of Deputy Commissioner of income tax vs Cheil communications
private limited [ ITA number 712/del/2010], wherein it was
held that markup is to be applied to the cost incurred by the
assessee company in performing its agency function and not to
the cost of rendering advertisement space on behalf of its
associated enterprises. Therefore, he held that based on
economic and commercial reality of the operations of the
appellant, income towards agency functions performed by the
appellant, the 3rd party costs are not relatable to the agency
function and are liable to be excluded from the cost base. The
Page | 24
assessee has produced before us an agreement dated 21st of
March 2001 entered into between BBC worldwide and BBC
worldwide (India) private limited. According to that agreement,
assessee shall act as BBC worldwide's exclusive agent for
marketing and distribution of the televised Channel BBC world to
cable operators and as and when approved by the Indian
government to any other broadcast distribution system in India.
The assessee shall further carry out research in respect of the
performance and viewership of BBC world in India and
communicate the results of all such research to BBC worldwide.
The BBC worldwide shall provide assessee from time to time
with appropriate promotional material to assist assessee in
carrying out its distribution and marketing services. In
consideration for the provision of the above services by assessee,
BBC worldwide shall pay assessee such amount as shall be
sufficient to cover the `operating costs' (including
appropriate overhead) which shall be incurred by assessee in
providing the above services, together with an additional
payment of 10% of such cost. The level of such cost shall be
agreed in advance by BBC worldwide and assessee on an
annual basis. The terms of this agreement shall commence on
01/04/2000 and shall continue until terminated by either party
on not less than 6 months prior written notice to the other party.
This fact is confirmed by assessee as well as BBC worldwide Ltd
as per this agreement. On plain reading of this agreement, the
consideration is required to be determined which shall be
sufficient to cover the operating cost, (including appropriate
overhead) which shall be incurred by the assessee in providing
the above services. Such cost base needs to be agreed by the
Page | 25
assessee and AE in advance. Therefore, it is apparent that all
expenditure incurred by the assessee for provision of the market
support services to BBC worldwide shall form part of the cost
base on which assessee is required to be remunerated. There is
no definition of what is `operating cost' in the agreement. No
evidences were produced either before the lower authorities or
before us to show how the operating cost is worked out and how
both the parties have come to conclusion about the level of the
operating cost of the assessee. Therefore, it is left between the
parties to decide what could be the `operating cost' on which the
assessee should be remunerated and what is the meaning of the
words `(including appropriate overhead)' for the purpose of
remuneration. No such clarification was given by the assessee
before any of the lower authorities or before us. The learned CIT
A neither verified it nor asked for it. Further, in the agreement
or in any other correspondence between the associated enterprise
and the assessee has been shown to us which even remotely
suggest that these 3rd party costs have been incurred at the
insistence of the associated enterprise and no risk is involved on
assessee. Firstly, in the profit and loss account which is audited
by the auditor of the company and approved by the shareholders
and directors, there is no reference of any 3rd party cost incurred
by the assessee on behalf of the associated enterprise. In fact, all
the expenses are routed through the profit and loss account.
Had this been the third party cost, which is not the liability of the
assessee for making the payment, but of the associated
enterprise, it should have been debited to the account of the
associated enterprise and should not have been routed through
the profit and loss account. The accounting treatment itself
Page | 26
shows that the expenses incurred by the assessee are its own
expenditure. Therefore we do not find any reason to exclude
them from the cost base on which the assessee needs to be
remunerated. The learned CIT A has rejected this saying that
accounting treatment does not govern the transfer pricing
analysis. In the case of U.P. State Industrial Development Corpn.
[1997] 225 ITR 703/92 Taxman 45 (SC), Hon Supreme Court
held that it is a well-accepted proposition that for the purposes of
ascertaining profits and gains, the ordinary principles of
commercial accounting should be applied, so long as they do not
conflict with any express provision of the relevant statute. The
said principle was again retreated by the Hon. Supreme Court in
the case of Woodward Governor in [2009] 312 ITR 254/179
Taxman 326 (SC) , wherein it held that profits for income-tax
purpose are to be computed in accordance with ordinary
principles of commercial accounting, unless such principles
stand superseded or modified by legislative enactments. Thus, it
can be said that accounting treatment of any transaction is
relevant only to the extent they are not in conflict with the
express provisions of the IT Act. The learned CIT did not show
that how this accounting treatment is in conflict with the transfer
pricing provisions. Unless the assessee establishes that, such
accounting treatment in the books of accounts which is approved
by the shareholders, auditors and directors of the company and
found to be in accordance with the accounting standard issued
by the Ministry of corporate affairs, read with the above guidance
of the honourable Supreme Court, cannot be ignored as such.
Further we have also looked at certain invoices which are said to
be 3rd party invoices (3rd party cost incurred by the assessee)
Page | 27
which is not included in the cost base. One of such instances ,
the bill raised by Network Advertising Private Limited on the
assessee on 16/11/2001, which is production charges at an
exhibition to promote the brand BBC world of Rs. 490000/. On
the reading of the above bill , we do not find any reason to
exclude it from the cost base of the assessee. Further, the
reliance by the learned CIT A, on para number 2.93 and para
number 7.36 of the 2010 OECD transfer pricing guidelines,
which is stated before him by the assessee, also clearly states
that if assessee would like to get certain cost to be excluded from
the cost base, it is for the assessee to show that only cost of the
agency function is required to be included. Further, only such
cost that can be excluded which would have been incurred
directly by the associated enterprise had they been independent.
Without recording such a finding of the fact, that these expenses
are not the liability of the assessee to incur them for rendering
the market support services, they cannot be excluded. It is for
the assessee to establish that certain expenditure are required to
be incurred by the associated enterprise but they did not incur
them, directed the assessee to incur them on their behalf and
would be reimbursed to the assessee without any further
function and risk associated with incurring such expenditure.
Even in this case the agreement between the assessee and the
associated enterprise was not produced before the lower
authorities. In absence of examination of such agreement with
the actual conduct of the parties, it cannot be decided that what
are the `operating costs' incurred by the assessee for marketing
support services functions, therefore, the order of the learned CIT
A cannot be sustained. Further, we do not find that on what
Page | 28
basis certain cost not allocated to the marketing support function
of the assessee have been accepted by the learned CIT A. No
basis has been given for accepting the contention of the assessee
by him. As the assessee has also produced the agreement
between the associated enterprise and the assessee now (it was
not before the learned assessing officer, the transfer pricing
officer or before the learned CIT appeal) before us, there is no
explanation with respect to what is the operating cost as well as
what is the indirect overhead on which the assessee is required
to be remunerated, the whole issue is required to be set aside to
the file of the learned Assessing Officer/Transfer Pricing Officer
with a direction to the assessee to produce all relevant agreement
as well as to demonstrate the conduct of the assessee in
accordance with those agreements , and to justify what the
parties mean by the `operating cost' and `indirect overhead'.
Thereafter the learned transfer-pricing officer may determine the
arm's-length price of the market support service fee, which would
have been charged by an independent party to the associated
enterprise. Accordingly, we set aside this issue to the file of the
learned transfer-pricing officer accordingly. Thus, ground
number one of the appeal of the learned assessing officer
challenging the order of the learned CIT A, wherein it has been
held that no mark up was required on 3rd party cost incurred by
the taxpayer on account of sales promotion, marketing and other
expenses and expenses incurred for distribution of the digital
satellite receiver for which dealers/agents were engaged and also
the commission paid to dealers and agents for selling such digital
satellite receiver is allowed for statistical purposes as per above
directions.
Page | 29
25. In the revised ground filed by the learned assessing officer , it
has challenged that the whether the forex loss being a non-
operating expenses or an operating expenditure (ground number
2) as well as the non-allocation of the certain indirect expenses
(ground number 3), as they are related to the transfer pricing
issues which has been decided by us by deciding the ground
number 1 of the appeal of the learned assessing officer by setting
aside it to the file of the learned transfer pricing officer, we also
set aside this ground of appeal of the assessing officer to the file
of the learned transfer pricing officer to re-determine the arm's-
length price of the international transaction of the market
support services functions.
26. Accordingly, appeal of the learned assessing officer is allowed
with above direction for statistical purposes and cross objection
filed by the assessee is dismissed.
Assessment Year 2003 04
ITA number 3007/del/2011 (by assessing officer)
Cross objection number 231/del/2011
27. The Revenue has raised the following grounds of appeal in ITA
No. 3007/Del/2011 for the Assessment Year 2003-04:-
"1. The ld CIT(A) has erred on facts and in law in deleting
addition of Rs. 1,45,68,882/- made on account of transfer
pricing adjustment as:-
a. The ld CIT(A) has erred in law in accepting the
assesse's contention that it is only intermediary
between third party and AE.
b. The soul of the market support services functions is
present in India as the assessee company is
responsible for discharging such functions as an
independent organization and a lot of effect is required
to be put into by it providing business promotion and
research services and, therefore, it needs to be
adequately compensated for such efforts. Therefore,
such cost cannot be ignored and excluded for the
Page | 30
purpose of computation of Arm's Length Price of Market
support services fee."
28. The assessee has raised the following grounds of appeal in Cross
objection No. 231/Del/2011 in ITA No. 3007/Del/2011 for the
Assessment Year 2003-04:-
"1. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, we
wish to rely on the order dated March 29, 2011 issued under
section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 passed by
Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals)-XX, New Delhi and
grounds of appeal filed in Form 35 before the Commissioner
of Income-tax (Appeals)-XX, New Delhi."
29. The assessee has also raised an additional ground of appeal in
the cross objection filed stating that the order passed by the
learned additional Commissioner of income tax (TPO) is not in
accordance with the law and hence it is invalid. This ground of
appeal in the cross objection is identical to the cross objection of
the assessee for assessment year 2002 03 which has been
dismissed by the assessee by giving reference. Therefore, for the
same reasons, we dismiss the cross objection of the assessee.
30. Both the parties agreed that the grounds of appeal raised by the
learned assessing officer are identical to the grounds of appeal
raised by him for assessment year 2002 03. They submitted
that their arguments also remains the same as there is no
change in the facts and circumstances of the case for this year.
31. As we have already set aside the transfer pricing issue while
deciding the appeal of the learned assessing officer for
assessment year 2002 03, for the similar reasons , we also set
aside appeal of the learned assessing officer back to the file of the
learned transfer pricing officer to redetermine the arm's-length
price of the international transaction in accordance with the
direction contained therein.
Page | 31
32. In view of this, we dismiss the cross objection filed by the
assessee and allow the appeal of the learned assessing officer for
statistical purposes with the directions contained in the appeal of
the learned assessing officer for assessment year 2002 03.
Assessment year 2005 06
ITA number 495/del/2012 (by the learned assessing officer)
Cross objection No. 52/Del/2012
33. The Revenue has raised the following grounds of appeal in ITA
No. 495/Del/2012 the Assessment Year 2005-06:-
"1. (a) The ld CIT(A) has erred on facts and in law in deleting
addition of Rs.1,48,26,190/- made on account of
transfer pricing adjustment.
(b) The ld CIT(A) has inter alia erred in law in accepting the
assessee's contention that it is only intermediary
between third party and AE.
(c) The ld CIT(A) inter alia erred in not appreciating that the
soul of the Market Support Services functions is present
in India as the assessee company is responsible for
discharging such functions as an independent
organization and a lot of effort is required to be put into
by it for providing business promotion and research
services and therefore, cannot be ignored and excluded
for the purpose of computation of Arm's Length Price of
Market support service fee."
34. The assessee has raised the following grounds of appeal in cross
objection No. 52/Del/2012 in ITA No. 495/Del/2012 the
Assessment Year 2005-06:-
"1. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, we
wish to rely on the order dated December 27, 2011 issued
under section 250 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 passed by the
ld Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals)-XX (ld CIT(A), New
Delhi and grounds of appeal filed in Form 35 before the ld
Commissioner of Income-tax (Appeals)-XX, New Delhi
Page | 32
2. The ld CIT(A) erred in law and on facts by not taking into
account the revised operating margin after incorporating
provision written back as part of operating income, having
upheld the said computation under paragraph 3.11 of his
order."
35. The assessee has raised an additional ground of appeal in its
cross objection stating that the order passed by the Additional
Commissioner Of Income Tax (The Transfer Pricing Officer) is
invalid as it was raised in assessment year 2002 03 in the cross
objection filed by the assessee. We have already dealt with the
above cross objection in deciding the cross objection of the
assessee for assessment year 2002 03, and for the similar
reasons, we also dismiss additional ground raised by the
assessee for this year too.
36. With respect to ground number 1 in the cross objection which is
general in supportive in nature, no arguments were advanced by
either of the parties and therefore it is dismissed.
37. The ground number 2 in the cross objection is related to the
transfer pricing issue with respect to the determination of the
arm's-length price of the market support service functions of the
assessee which is also connected with the appeal of the learned
assessing officer, therefore, same would be dealt with by dealing
with the appeal of the learned assessing officer for this year.
38. Both the parties agreed that the grounds of appeal raised by the
learned assessing officer are identical to the grounds of appeal
raised by the for assessment year 2002 03. They submitted
that their arguments also remain the same. As we have already
set aside the transfer pricing issue while deciding the appeal of
the learned assessing officer for assessment year 2002 03, for
the similar reasons, we also set aside appeal of the learned
assessing officer back to the file of the learned transfer pricing
Page | 33
officer to redetermine the arm's-length price of the international
transaction in accordance with the direction contained therein.
39. In view of this we dismiss the cross objection filed by the
assessee and allow the appeal of the learned assessing officer for
statistical purposes with the directions contained in the appeal of
the learned assessing officer for assessment year 2002 03.
40. For this year, the ITO Ward 2 (4), New Delhi passed draft
assessment order dated 30/11/2009 u/s 143 read with section
144C of the act proposing an addition of Rs 22048880/ in
pursuance of the direction of the learned dispute resolution
panel where the transfer pricing adjustment suggested by the
learned transfer pricing officer of Rs. 22048880/ was confirmed
by the learned dispute resolution panel..
41. The Assessee has raised the following grounds of appeal in ITA
No. 4304/Del/2010 the Assessment Year 2006-07:-
"The addition amounting to INR 2,20,48,880 undertaken by The
Learned Income Tax Officer, Ward 2(4), New Delhi ("the Ld. AO")
vide final assessment order dated July 16, 2010 (received by the
Appellant on July 21, 2010) passed under section 143(3) read with
section 144C(13) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 ("the Act") is not in
accordance with the law and therefore not sustainable.
1. The Dispute Resolution Panel, New Delhi ("the DRP") erred in
law and facts by summarily rejecting the Appellant's
objections to the draft order dated November 30, 2009
passed by the Ld. AO under section 143(3) read with section
144C(1) of the Act. The DRP while issuing directions under
section 144C(5) of the Act did not allow reasonable
opportunity to the Appellant to fight the case on merits. The
directions of the DRP are erroneous and perverse on facts.
Transfer Pricing ("TP") Adjustment - INR 2,20,48,880
2. The addition of INR 2,20,48,880 recommended by the
Learned Transfer Pricing Officer ("Ld. TPO") and incorporated
by the Ld. AO in the final assessment order dated July 16,
2010 is bad in law on the following grounds:
Page | 34
2.1. The Ld. AO has erred in law and on facts in concluding that
the Appellant should also earn a mark-up on infrastructure
and operational expenses and third-party marketing and
research costs which have been reimbursed by the
associated enterprises ("AEs") on cost- to-cost basis. While
making these erroneous assertions, the Ld. AO has
misconstrued the functional profile of the Appellant and has
also disregarded the well established economic principle of
excluding such non value added expenses from the cost base
of the tested party; ^
2.2. The Ld. AO has erred in law and on facts in making
modification to the set of comparable companies identified by
the Appellant in relation to marketing & distribution support
services segment by rejecting comparables on grounds of
functional dissimilarity based on conjectures and surmises;
2.3. The Ld. AO has erred in law and on facts in selecting Maruti
Insurance Brokers Limited as a comparable on an arbitrary
basis and without assigning any cogent reason for its
selection, disregarding the fact that the Appellant has
rejected this company in the Transfer Pricing Documentation;
2.4. The Ld. AO has erred in law and on facts in computing
erroneous arm's length margins in respect of comparables
companies;
2.5. The Ld. AO has erred in law and on facts in computing
erroneous profitability of the Appellant for analysis under the
Transactional Net Margin Method ("TNMM") based on
inaccurate characterisation of income and expenses into
"operating" and "non-operating" categories;
2.6. The Ld. AO has erred in law and on facts in determining the
arm's length price by relying upon data of the comparables
for financial year 2005-06 only, disregarding the multiple
year data approach followed by the Appellant. Further, the
Ld. AO has erred in laws and on facts by relying upon
updated data of the Comparables which was not available to
the Appellant at the time of maintenance of Transfer Pricing
Documentation within the time¬frame mentioned in Rule
10D(4) of the Income Tax Rules;
2.7. The Ld. AO has erred in law and on facts by not allowing the
benefit of (+/-) 5% range as provided in the proviso to Section
92C(2) of the Act while determining the arm's length price of
the international transactions of the Appellant;
Page | 35
2.8. The Ld. AO has erred in law and on facts by not allowing the
Appellant the adjustment for differences in the material items
reported in the financial statements of the Appellant as
compared to those of the comparable companies for analysis
under the TNMM; and
2.9. The Ld. AO has erred in law and on facts in not allowing the
Appellant the adjustments for differences in its risk profile
vis-a-vis those of the comparable companies disregarding the
fact that while the Appellant is a captive risk-free service
provider, the Comparables are entrepreneurs assuming
significant risks."
42. The learned dispute resolution panel accepted the detailed
reasons given by the learned transfer pricing officer as to why
assessee should also on a markup on infrastructure and
operational expenses and third-party marketing and research
costs which have been reimbursed by the associated enterprise
on cost to cost basis. The learned dispute resolution panel also
noted that there is nothing worth interfering in the order of the
learned transfer pricing officer. Therefore the grievance of the
assessee is that the learned dispute resolution panel did not
allow reasonable opportunity to the appellant to fight the case on
the merit. As these issues have been set aside by us to the file of
the learned transfer pricing officer has per detailed reason given
by us in our order for assessment year 2002 03 in the appeal of
the learned assessing officer, in this appeal of the assessee
agitating the same issue, we think it fit and just to set aside this
issue also to the file of the learned transfer pricing officer to
consider the submissions made by the assessee about third-
party cost and other cost not includable in the cost base of the
assessee. Therefore the ground number 2 of the appeal is set
aside to the file of the learned transfer pricing officer with similar
direction to the assessee and the learned transfer pricing officer
as given by us in deciding the appeal for assessment year 2002
Page | 36
03. Accordingly, ground number 2 of the appeal is allowed with
above direction.
43. Ground number 1 is general in nature and therefore same is
dismissed.
44. Accordingly, ITA number 4304/del/2010 is allowed for statistical
purposes.
AY 2007-08
ITA No 5556/Del/2014 ( AO) & 5441/del/2014 ( By
Assessee)
45. The Revenue has raised the following grounds of appeal in ITA
No. 5556/Del/2014 the Assessment Year 2007-08:-
"1. Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case,
and in law, the Ld. CIT(A) was justified in considering the
New Age Entertainment as a comparable without
appreciating that no company can be taken as comparable
whose detailed data is not available in public domain.
2. Whether on the facts and in the circumstances of the case,
and in law, the Ld. CIT(A) has made the decision on
reimbursement cost by plainly citing the previous year
adjudication without appreciating the following grounds:
(i) The tax auditor of the assessee has itself classified this
expenditure as Operational Costs in notes to the
account for the reason that these expenses are
intrinsically linked to the running of business of the
assessee of promoting the business of its overseas
affiliate.
(ii) There cannot be any reason to treat such expenses as
non-operating in nature given that the entire revenues of
the assessee are from the business of promoting,
marketing and distribution of BBC Channel and Ad time
of the AE.
(iii) The assessee has rendered these services for the
benefit of the AE Under Arm's Length circumstances any
enterprise rendering such services solely for the benefit
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of the recipient would charge a sum on the expense
incurred which would include an agreed mark-up.
(iv) The assessee w.e.f. 2004-05 has maneuvered its
financial ignoring past practice under a common
agreement in such a manner that a part of the expenses
were kept out of the cost base only to hide the obvious
loss.
(v) Any agreement containing any kind of riders cannot be
so sacrosanct so as to justify the Arm's Length nature of
any international transaction. Hence just by entering
into an agreement a transaction cannot escape the
purview of scrutiny on the ground of law."
46. The Assessee has raised the following grounds of appeal in ITA
No. 5441/Del/2014 the Assessment Year 2007-08:-
"Segmental Approach
1 On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in upholding aggregation of the
Marketing support function performed by the Appellant with
the Distribution function and adoption of an entity wide
profitability approach for benchmarking analysis; thereby
implicitly confirming the findings of the Ld. Transfer Pricing
Officer:
1.1 that the Marketing Support function and Distribution function
performed by the Appellant are inter-dependent and inter-
related and thus not separable;
1.2 that the segmental approach adopted by the Appellant
should be rejected since no segmental accounts have been
drawn in the audited financials of the Appellant for the year;
1.3 that no rational cost allocation methodology has been
followed by the Appellant for allocating operating expenses,
personnel expenses and depreciation;
1.4 that the Appellant should earn an arm's length profit mark-up
on costs amounting to INR 68,866,543 incurred in the
Distribution segment which is a purely domestic activity
during the year;
1.5 that the Appellant has not submitted details with regard to
the channel distribution income earned in foreign exchange.
2. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in erroneously stating that the
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Distribution segment did not exist in the original Transfer
Pricing Documentation report and audited accounts of
appellant for the year overlooking the facts that information
with regard to the Distribution segment was presented by the
Appellant on Page 36 of the said report and the audited
accounts also separately recorded the channel distribution
income in Schedule 9;
3. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in erroneously alleging that the
Distribution segment was artificially created by the Appellant
by entering into the agreement dated February 21, 2008 with
retrospective effect from November 11, 2005 in order to show
profitability at desired levels, without providing the Appellant
an opportunity of rebutting such false allegations before
passing the order;
Operating Profit and Profit Level Indicator
4. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in upholding inclusion in the cost base of
the Appellant, Rs. 16,328,860 on account of costs incurred by
the Appellant towards payments made to third party vendors
for research and agency fees on behalf of its associated
enterprise; which were reimbursed to the Appellant on a cost-
to-cost basis and had no value added activity carried out by
the Appellant;
5. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in considering certain third party non
value added costs (research and agency fees) incurred by the
Appellant as costs intrinsically linked with the core areas of
operations of the Appellant and in recommending that the
Appellant should earn a mark-up on them, misconstruing its
functional profile and disregarding the nature of these
expenses;
6. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in rejecting the documentary evidences
duly submitted by the Appellant in the form of third party
invoices, which clearly highlight the fact that services in
relation to research and agency fees were actually rendered
by third party vendors and that the Appellant was only
acting as an agent in claiming reimbursements on such non-
value added costs;
Comparability Analysis
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7. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in implicitly confirming the findings of
the Ld. Transfer Pricing Officer on rejection of the comparable
search conducted and documented by the Appellant in the
Supplementary Transfer Pricing analysis based on
unjustifiable contentions that the comparable companies
have different financial year ending and operate in different
geographies/ economies;
8. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in upholding the arbitrary inclusion of 4
companies (Marketing Consultants & Agencies Ltd., Rockman
Advertising and Marketing (India) Ltd., Goldmine Advertising
Ltd., and Adbur Pvt. Ltd.) for arm's length price
determination, disregarding the fact that the same were
rejected by the Appellant in its Supplementary Transfer
Pricing analysis on account of functional dissimilarity and
insufficient financial information;
Use of Multiple Year Data
9. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in upholding determination of arm's
length price by relying upon data of the selected comparable
companies for financial year 2006-07 only, disregarding the
multiple year data approach followed by the Appellant and
the fact that updated data of these companies was not
available to the Appellant at the time of maintenance of
Transfer Pricing Documentation within the time-frame
mentioned in Rule 10D(4) of the Income Tax Rules;
Benefit (=/-)5% Range
10. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in not allowing the benefit of (+/-) 5%
range as provided in the proviso to Section 92C(2) of the Act
for determination of the arm's length price of the international
transactions of the Appellant.
General
11. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in upholding that brought forward losses
and unabsorbed depreciation under Section 72 of the Act
should be set-off against the taxable income of the Appellant
determined after considering the transfer pricing adjustment;
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12. On the facts and circumstances of the case and in law, the
Ld. CIT(A) has erred in upholding levy of interest under
section 234D of the Act."
47. For assessment year 2007 08, the learned transfer pricing
officer considered the reimbursement of INR 45,100,000 as part
of the cost base of the assessee and therefore determined the
profit level indicator of the assessee at (-) 13.98% whereas the
PLI of the comparables was determined at 13.04% and thus
worked out the adjustment of the arm's-length price of the
international transaction of marketing support services at INR 3
4069484/. The assessment order was framed on 01/02/2011
wherein the above adjustment was incorporated and the total
taxable income of the assessee was determined at INR 3
8587365/ against the returned income of INR 4 384850/.
The assessee challenged the order of the learned assessing
officer before the learned CIT (A) XX, New Delhi. He passed an
order dated 31/7/2014 wherein as per para number 5.3 of his
order he directed to exclude from the cost base, the cost to the
extent which are directly relatable to the 3rd parties namely (1)
advertisement and publicity, (2) business promotion and (3)
participation in trade events only. He also excluded one
comparable New Age entertainment from the comparability
analyses. He confirmed all other adjustment is proposed by the
learned transfer pricing officer incorporated by the learned
assessing officer in assessment order. Therefore revenue
aggrieved with the relief granted by the learned CIT A to the
assessee and assessee is aggrieved with the order so far as the
transfer pricing adjustment confirmed by the learned CIT A.
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48. Both the parties confirmed that there is no change in the facts
and circumstances, their arguments are same as compared in
assessment year 2002 03. Therefore, as we have already set
aside the issue of transfer pricing adjustment on account of the
market support services to the file of the learned transfer
pricing officer for assessment year 2002 03 and subsequent
years which are pending in the impugned appeal, we also set
aside the appeal of the learned assessing officer as well as of the
assessee with similar directions.
49. In the result appeal of the assessee and the learned assessing
officer are allowed for statistical purposes.
50. Accordingly, all 11 appeals involving the similar issue of the
assessee are disposed of.
Order pronounced in the open court on 18/10/2019.
-Sd/- -Sd/-
(KULDIP SINGH) (PRASHANT MAHARISHI)
JUDICIAL MEMBER ACCOUNTANT MEMBER
Dated:18/10/2019
A K Keot
Copy forwarded to
1. Applicant
2. Respondent
3. CIT
4. CIT (A)
5. DR:ITAT
ASSISTANT REGISTRAR
ITAT, New Delhi
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