India, Britain sign 3 bilateral Advance Pricing Agreements

India and Britain on Friday signed three more bilateral Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) taking the total number of these pacts to a total of 111 so far, an official statement said.

"The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) signed three three bilateral APAs here today taking the total number of APAs signed (both-bilateral and unilateral) so far to 111," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

"These three agreements cover international transactions in the nature of payment of intra-group service charges and pertain to the telecom industry. They also have a roll-back provision," the statement said.

With this, India and Britain have concluded five bilateral APAs and some more would be concluded in the near future, it added.

Authorities from both countries had earlier exchanged mutual agreements amongst them under the Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) Article of the India-UK Double Taxation Avoidance Convention (DTAC).

The Advance Pricing Agreement programme was introduced by the Finance Act, 2012 with a view to provide a predictable and non-adversarial tax regime and to reduce the litigation in the Indian transfer pricing arena.

An APA can be entered into for a maximum of five years at a time. Since the notification of the APA scheme on August 30, 2012, a total of about 700 APA applications have been received during the first four years of the programme, which indicates the wide acceptance by the taxpayers, it said.

"The Indian APA programme has been appreciated nationally and internationally for being able to address complex transfer pricing issues in a fair and transparent manner," it added.

--IANS

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