CBDT signs two more Unilateral APA's with Indian taxpayers

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday announced entering into two Unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APA) with Indian taxpayers on May 4 and 11 respectively, out of which one agreement holds a rollback provision.

The APA Scheme endeavors 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.

Further, the taxpayer has the option to rollback the APA for four preceding years, as a result of which, total nine years of tax certainty is provided. Since its inception, the APA scheme has attracted tremendous interest among Multi National Enterprises (MNEs).

As per the two signed APAs, pertaining of chip design/development of embedded software and Information technology (software development) sectors of the economy is required.

The number of APAs signed in the current financial year now is four. 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.