CBDT signs Advance Pricing Agreements with Indian taxpayers

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has entered into five unilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) with Indian taxpayers in June along with a bilateral APA involving the United Kingdom, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.

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 years.

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

"The APAs signed in June pertain to healthcare, IT and gaming/animation (media) sectors of the economy," the ministry said in a statement.

The number of unilateral APAs signed in the current financial year is nine.

With this, the total number of APAs signed since the commencement of the programme till date stands at 162 (unilateral-150 and bilateral-12).

--IANS

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