The five APAs signed during the month pertain to sectors like healthcare, information technology and gaming/animation (media).

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has signed five more unilateral advance pricing agreements (APAs) with Indian taxpayers as it looks to reduce litigation by providing certainty in transfer pricing.

The five APAs signed during the month pertain to sectors like healthcare, information technology and gaming/animation (media). These agreements also have a 'Rollback' provision in them, a finance ministry statement said.

A bilateral advance pricing agreement (involving United Kingdom) was also signed during the month, a statement by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said. "The APA Scheme endeavours to provide certainty to taxpayers in the domain of transfer pricing by specifying the methods of pricing and determining the arm's length price of international transactions in advance for the maximum of five future years," it said.

The number of unilateral APAs signed in the current financial year is now nine and the number of bilateral APAs signed in the current financial year is one. With this, the total number of APAs signed since the commencement of the programme till date stands at 162 (Unilateral-150 and Bilateral-12).

The CBDT expects more APAs to be signed in the near future. "The progress of the APA Scheme strengthens the Government’s commitment to foster a non-adversarial tax regime," it added.